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I . 

THE  DEFECTIVE  SCHOLARSHIP  OF  OUR 
SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

II  o 

WHAT  COURSE  OF  STUDY  SHOULD  BE  TAKEN  BY 
A  BOY  WHO  IS  ENTERING-  HIGH  SCHOOL? 

BY 

Harris  Hancock,  Ph.D.  (Berlin),  Dr.  So.  (Paris) 
Professor  of  Mathematics  in  the 
University  of  Cincinnati 


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INTRODUCTION 


For  many  years  I  have  felt  that  in  our  educational  courses, 
Tie  have  not  been  emphasising  sufficiently  those  studies  which 
were  regarded  formerly  as  valuable  in  the  training  of  the  mind. 
V/e  have  allowed  too  much  stress  to  be  laid  upon  subjects,  which, 
even  if  mastered,  offer  but  little  mental  discipline.  Too  many 
subjects  designated  as  vocational,  manual,  commercial,  pedogo- 
gical,  etc.,  have  been  forced  into  the  curriculum  and  these 
subjects  have  been  emphasized  far  too  much  in  proportion  to 
their  educational  value  or  practical  utility. 

I  further  believe  that  the  young  people  of  Cincinnati  are 
not  receiving  as  good  an  education  as  it  is  possible  to  give 
them  with  the  same  expenditure  of  money.  Why  at  the  age  of 
seventeen  are  our  pupils  three  years  behind  in  their  studies 
those  of  England,  France  and  Germany?  What  have  our  pupils  to 
show  as  an  offset  for  these  three  lost  years  of  study? 

I  have  had  unusual  opportunities  of  studying  in  Paris, 
Berlin,  Cambridge  (England;  and  America  the  conditions  of 
which  I  write:  I  w as  for  a  number  of  years  in  charge  of  the 
affiliation  of  schools  with  the  University  of  Cincinnati  and 
I  have  served  on  many  committees  which  considered  the  courses 
of  studv  in  the  University. 

The  following  two  papers  have  been  prepared  as  a  study  of 
the  conditions  as  they  exist  in  our  schools.  It  is  easy  to 
test  the  conclusions  that  I  have  drawn;  and  I  trust  that  what 
1  have  written  may  be  of  some  use  to  those  who  have  charge  of 
our  educational  system.  During  the  next  ten  years  let  these 
gentlemen  improve  the  scholarship  of  our  schools  as  much  as 
they  have  improved  the  buildings  and  physical  conditions  dur¬ 
ing  the  last  ten  years  .  In  this  they  will  find  a  hearty  co¬ 
operation  on  the  part  of  the  professors,  teachers  and  parents. 
For  we  know  that  n the  life  is  more  than  meat,  and  the  body 
more  than  raiment?" 


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THE  DEFECTIVE  SCHOLARSHIP  OF  OUR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 
I .The  Underlying  Causes . 

1°,  Thomas  Jefferson,  after  having  availed  himself  of  excep¬ 
tional  opportunities  for  studying  the  systems  of  education  which 
then  existed  in  the  civilized  nor Id,  with  his  great  constructive 
ability,  founded  the  University  of  Virginia.  Kis  ideas  of  educa¬ 
tion  in  all  its  phases  are  well  worth  examination. 

In  the  University  of  Virginia  there  17 as  established  a  system 
of  schools;  for  example,  the  School  of  Latin,  the  School  of  Math¬ 
ematics,  the  School  of  Natural  Philosophy,  etc.  A  student  was 
permitted  to  study  in  any  of  these  schools  and  obtain  in  it  a  di¬ 
ploma  of  graduation  or  proficiency.  By  taking  diplomas  in  practi¬ 
cally  all  the  existing  schools,  a  student  obtained  the  A.  M.  de¬ 
gree  from  the  University.  This  indicated  that  he  had  taken  a  com¬ 
prehensive  course  of  instruction  and  had  done  a  considerable 
amount  of  work,  since  the  requirements  of  some  of  the  schools 
were  difficult  and  of  an  exacting  nature.  The  degree  therefore 
signified  that  the  recipient  was  a  well  rounded  scholar.  At  the 
same  time  a  great  number  of  young  Virginia  gentlemen,  who  had  no 


intention  whatever  of  studying,  would  take  courses  and  receive  di¬ 
plomas  in  certain  of  the  schools  which  recommended  themselves  on 
account  of  their  ease;  possibly  also  the  affability  and  good  na¬ 
ture  of  the  professors  in  charge  proved  attractive.  These  diplomas 
simply  meant  that  the  young  men  had  spent  some  time  at  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Virginia.  The  University,  on  its  part,  gave  no  degree 
co  indicate  that  it  considered  these  young  men  scholars,  and  on 
their  part,  the  young  men  did  not  care  for  any  marks  of  scholar- 

shin  when  they  had  done  no  work. 

2220 


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Since  that  time  the  subjects  which  were  comprised  in  one 
school  have  multiplied  to  such  an  extent  and  have  been  so  augment¬ 
ed  that  now  they  would  constitute  many  schools,  new  sciences  or 
quasi-sciences  have  been  developed,  other  languages  have  been  intro¬ 
duced,  new  fads  inaugurated. 

Several  decades  ago,  wishing  to  out-Jeff erson  Jefferson, 
Harvard  University,  followed  closely  by  many  other  institutions, 

especially  those  of  the  middle-west  and  west,  introduced  the  "elec- 

% 

tive  system",  whereby  all  courses  being  free  and  equal  in  value 
might  be  drawn  upon  to  fill  up  a  quota  of  units  sufficient  for 
graduation,  a  few  units  being  prescribed  according  to  the  defin¬ 
ite  degree  granted.  It  is  evident  that  such  a  degree  is  a  combin¬ 
ation  on  the  one  hand  of  the  degree  similar  to  that  given  at  the 
University  of  Virginia,  and  on  the  other  hand  of  what  was  express¬ 
ed  through  the  diplomas  in  the  various  schools  in  that  institution. 
In  other  words,  the  degree  signifies  that  the  young  man  has  either 
studied  or  sojourned  in  college.  This  elective  system  has  natur¬ 
ally  permeated  the  high  school*  We  shall  call  it  a  permoatiorf 
" downwards . " 

2° i  We  next  find  inaugurated  certain  schools  or  "Kindergar¬ 
tens",  places  where  the  small  child  may  be  taken  care  of  and  enter¬ 
tained  according  to  prescribed  fashions  through  which  it  can,  if  it 
will,  absorb  or  imbibe  knowledge.  Here  to  teach  the  child,  it  must 
be  kept  interested,  the  attention  .being  held  by  various  methods  of 
entertainment •  This  desire  of  being  amused  has  naturally  permea- 
bed  "upwards"  the  high  schools  and  also  the  universities.  We  thus 

r? ind  "ease"  permeating  the  high  school  from  both  the  upward  and  the 

2220 


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5°.  V7e  note  thirdly,  tho  springing  up  and  flourishing  of  cer¬ 
tain  colleges  called  Teachers’  Colleges  which  exist  for  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  executive  officers  and  "good  teachers",  those  teachers 
being  good  who  are  better  able  to  move  along  the  lines  of  least  re 
sistance  among  the  "strata  of  ease"  which  have  just  been  described 
and  who  can  make  still  easier  what  they  teach  and  thereby  become 
more  interesting  and  entertaining  to  the  pupils.  The  teaching  is 
not  "this  is  your  task,  do  it;"  but  the  method  is  "this  is  your 
task;  if  it  is  not  attractive,  let  us  find  a  substitute  for  it, 
which  is  of  equal  educational  value/ 

These  colleges  are  naturally  in  close  contact  with  the  teach¬ 
ers  in  the  secondary  schools,  their  doctrines  are  rapidly  dissemi¬ 
nated,  their  methods  readily  adopted.  Thus  the  schools  become 
quickly  impregnated  with  indefinite  principles,  inaccurate  theo¬ 
ries,  unscientific  methods  and  false  doctrines* 

The  very  terminology  found  in  these  Teachers’  Colleges  is 
vague  and  obscure,  for  example,  they  appropriate  " education*  and 
restrict  the  meaning  of  a  word,  which  the  universities  in  a  mod¬ 
est  way  have  used  to  denote  the  training  and  knowledge  that  they 
have  imparted  to  students  for  some  twenty  or  thirty  centuries*  Un 
like  the  other  schools,  Law,  Medicine,  Divinity,  Engineering, 
which  designate  their  professions  in  their  degrees,  the  "educa¬ 
tionalists"  in  their  diplomas  often  seek  to  dodge  their  own  name. 
Tho  degree  we  would  naturally  expect,  is  Baohelor  of  Education  anc. 
written  B •  Ed.  V.re  are  forced  to  recall  the  old  fable,  in  which  we 

"the  jackdaw  mindful  of  his  own  deformity,  clad 

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himself  in  the  feathers  of  other  birds" , 

For  a  moment ,  we  may  consider  the  nature  of  the  instruction 
which  is  being  imparted  to  the  teachers.  Here  phases  of  all  kinds 
of  quasi-  or  pseudo-psychology  take  the  place  of  mathematics  and 
the  sciences,  the  arts  being  replaced  for  the  most  part  by  the  his¬ 
tory  and  principles  of  "education"  and  by  "methods  of  teaching". 
These  teachers  become  imbidedwith  the  idea  that  the  very  difficult 
and  complex  question  of  educational  values  can  be  settled  by  means 
of  a  few  crude  experiments.  They  will  assert  that  -the  training  re¬ 
ceived  by  learning  and  comprehending  the  great  truths  of  science  or 
by  studying  and  appreciating  the  great  works  of  literature,  can  be 
measured  in  terms  of  the  training  received  by  estimating  the  sizes 
of  different  pieces  of  paper  or  by  marking  certain  letters  on 
printed  pages, 

A  question  that  particularly  interests  such  teachers  is, if  a 
boy  is  good  in  one  subject,  how  good  correspondingly  may  we  expect 
him  to  bo  in  another  subject?  To  solve  this  problem,  many  observa¬ 
tions  or  tests  are  made  upon  a  group  of  boys,  the  so-called  Pear¬ 
son  Co-efficient  of  Correlarion  is  introduced  and  it  is  assumed 
that  in  this  way  different  mental  adaptabilities  can  be  predicted 
with  the  same  degree  of  positiveness  as  we  have  formerly  found,  ac¬ 
companying  the  geometrical  deduction  or  the  Aristotelian  syllogism. 
How  there  is  not  one  teacher  in  a  hundred  that  is  able  to  derive 
or  who  even  understands  the  Pearson  Coefficient,  The  Coefficient 
is  founded  upon  the  mathematical  theory  of  probability,  a  theory 
in  which  we  speak  only  of  the  probability  that  an.  event  will  occur. 

We  thus  find  adopted  a  method  that  is  contrary  to  all  methods  of 

2220 


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teaching  in  the  exact  sciences,  where  every  instrument  of  deduction 
must  be  thoroughly  tested,  proved  and  understood. 

To  make  this  clearer,  I  shall  cite  specific  examples  *  In  Sci¬ 
ence  (P.  609,  April  24,  1914)  Professor  E«L. Thorndike  of  Columbia 
University  is  quoted  as  follows: 

1°.  "The  old  notion  that  Latin  or  Mathematics  made  the  mind  - 
more  effective  in  all  the  work  of  business  or  other  professions, 
was  largely  superstition;"  and  again 

2°.  "Mathematics  improves  mathematical  reasoning  but  not  the 
power  to  reason  in  general." 

These  two  Thorndikean  propositions,  if  true,  are  certainly  not 
axiomatic,  and  consequently  they  are  susceptible  of  proof.  Instead 
of  propounding  them  as  demonstrable  facts  in  gatherings  of  school 
principals,  that  for  the  most  part  are  willing  to  accept  anything 
from  a  Columbia,  professor,  it  would  have  been  more  scientific  if 
Professor  Thorndike  had  first  proved  his  statements  and  then  demon¬ 
strated  them  at  a  meeting  of  the  American  Mathematical  Society  or 
the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  Possibly 
ho  will  do  this  later  I 

As  a  second  example.  I  recently  heard  a  young  doctor  of  Phi¬ 
losophy,  a  former  pupil  of  Thorndike,  give  the  results  of  somq  of 
his  investigations.  Ho  had  made  a  series  of  tests  with  boys  in  mul¬ 
tiplying,  adding  and  dividing  numbers  which  consist  of  one  cipher 
or  digit;  after  making  a  second  sorios  of  tests  with  the  same  boys 

and  with  numbers  which  consist  of  two  ciphers  he  introduced  the 

2220 


Pear sen  Coefficient.  He  then  derived  results  which  led  him  to  de¬ 
clare  that  the  mental  processes  which  produced  expertness  in  the 
first  set  of  operations  were  in  no  wise  connected  with  those  which 
caused  efficiency  in  the  second  set.  Such  an  assertion  seems  al¬ 
most  incredible,  since  every  one  knows  through  his  own  experience 
that  this  is  false.  The  same  young  man  predicted  that  the  time 
would  soon  come  when  children  would  not  be  made  to  learn  the  mul¬ 
tiplication  table.  Upon  being  questioned,  he  declared  that  not 
knowing  any  mathematics  he  did  not  understand  the  nature  of  Pear¬ 
son  Coefficient.  At  the  present  time  he  is  giving  courses  ir  a  Uni¬ 
versity  which  courses  include  the  "method  of  teaching  mathematics" . 

Another  very  alluring  subject  connected  with  these  quasi-psy- 
chological  studies  is  what  is  known  as  "Vocational  Guidance" , 

Here  we  are  given  to  understand  that  by  making  a  number  of  practi¬ 
cal  or  physical  tests  with  a  given  individual  we  can  make  a  progno¬ 
sis  of  his  mind  and  foretell  in  what  lines  of  work  he  will  be  pro¬ 
ficient.  We  are  told  that  some  boys  are  adapted  to  certain  courses 
while  other  boys  are  adapted  to  other  courses,  so  that  the  logical 
beginning  of  all  education  is  to  bo  found  in  the  "individualiza¬ 
tion  of  the  boy".  After  this  has  been  done  "educational  methods 
should  be  adapted  to  the  development  of  aptitudes  which  comprise 

*::-A  detailed  discussion  of  the  use  of  the1  theory  of  correlation  ir. 
educational  investigations  has  been  made  by  a  young  mathematician 
of  real  merit.  Professor  C.  i!.  Moore,  On  Correlation  and  Disciplin¬ 
ary  Values,  School  and  Society,  Vol.  II  (1915),  p«  378#  In  this 
paper  it  is  shown  that  most  of  the  work  that  has  been  done  in  this 
connection  is  totally  lacking  in  scientific  accuracy,  and  that  many 
of  those  engaged  in  doing  the  work  had  no  clear  conception  of  the 
significance  of  a  correlation  coefficient.  In  another  paper  (See 
Science ,  pp.  575-7,  1915)  Professor  Moore  has  given  a  revised  form 
for  this  coefficient,  but  says  that  even  then  but  little  dependence 
can  be  put  in  the  results  that  are  derived  from  it. 

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the  basis  of  the  boyTs  special  strength;  while  at  the  sane  tine, 
studies  should  be  so  selected  as  reasonably  to  develop  his  othor 
faculties  and  thus  accomplish  something  like  symmetry  in  education- 
al  results But  I  ask  first  is  such  a  prognosis  possible?  and  sec¬ 
ondly,  who  can  make  it?  Is  there  any  one  who  will  dare  to  put  down 
in  black  and  white  a  mental  diagnosis  of  his  best  friend?  Is  there 
any  father  who  is  willing  to  permit  an  expert  guide  in  things  voca¬ 
tional  to  predestine  the  future  career  of  his  son  by  means  of  a 
wooden  box,  a  few  strings,  a  lyetal  apparatus,  the  flashing  of  a  few 
colors  and  the  shuffling  of  a  pack  of  cards?  Many  of  us  are  very 
doubtful  whether  alienists,  even  the  high  priced  ones,  can  distin¬ 
guish  between  normal  and  abnormal  minds,  and  wo  are  further  told 
-that  the  lino  of  demarcation  between  genius  and  insanity  is  hard  to 
fix. 

We  must*,  however,  always  expect  to  find  many  Doctor  Cooks  in 
the  realm  of  the  unknown.  Prom  the  Washington  Post,  June  26 ,  1915, 
we  learn  that  Professor  Hugo  Mtmsterberg  has  invented  the  tfunerring 
sphy  gome  ter,  an  instrument  for  detecting  lies".  r7In  thousands  of 
tests  which  he  with  the  true  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  the  inves¬ 
tigator,  has  applied  to  others,  the  machine  has  never  failed. f: 

In  the  Unpopular  Review  October  -  December,  1915,  p.  54-6,  un¬ 
der  the  heading  Vocational  Guidance,  Professor  E*  B.  Breese,  an  en- 

.  i 

inent  psychologist,  writes:  ” In  spite  of  all  the  tests  that  psychol¬ 
ogy  has  produced,  when  we  attempt  to  fix  by  vocational  guidance, the 
career  of  so  complex  a  thing  as  a  personality,  we  are  in  no  better 
position  than  the  school  master  who  advised  his  pupil  not  to  study 

"  The  boy  did  study  law  and  became  a  famous  judge 

2220 


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VJe  further  find,  p.  5552,  that  Breese  in  his  laboratory,  wh  ,n 

testing  the  method  by  which  Mtmsterberg  has  been  claiming  to  be 

>  • 

able  to  select  good  sea  captains  and  the  like,  shows  that  accordin 

to  the  Mftnsterborg  principle,  women  are  much  better  fitted  for 

% 

these  jobs  than  men# 

The  inaccurate  theories  that  have  been  outlined  above,  would 
be  of  little  significance,  if  their  authors  would  first  t.ry  thorn 
out  in  one  or  two  schools  or  in  restricted  localities.  When,  how- 

r 

ever,  these  vagaries  are  being  transmitted  through  teachers1  col¬ 
leges  by  the  wholesale  into  the  secondary  and  elementary  schools, 
it  is  time  to  enter  a  protest*  For,  if  such  methods  of  inexact¬ 
ness  and  indcf ihiteness  are  long  continued,  will  we  be  surprised 
if  our  future  teachers  ere  taught  by  the  Departments  of  Education, 
in  English  literature  that"Cowper  was  the  author  of  the  Canterbury 
Tales”  and  in  history  that  "the  Battle  of  Salamis  was  fought  in  a 
pass  of  Northern  Italy  between  the  Greeks  and  the  Macedonians,  the 
latter  achieving  a  great  victory,  etc.?"  This  is  inevitable. 

In  this  connection  I  shall  introduce  extracts  of  a  letter 
from  one  of  'the  loading  men  in  possibly  the  best  known  Teachers T 
College:  "Some  of  the  methods  as  well  as  corjplusions  that  have  . 
come  out  in  the  last  half  dozen  years  -  not  only  in  this  institu¬ 
tion,  but  in  others  like  it  -  have  been  so  ridiculous  from  the 
standpoint  of  real ' science,  that  one  would  almost  feel  that  they 
would  not  be  -accepted  by  anyone.  Nevertheless,  the  unscientific 
mind  has  been  absorbing  this  material  for  several  years,  and  has 
been  taking  the  conclusions  as  absolutely  scientific.'' 


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agencies  that  ue re  described  in  the  third  caption,  I  shall  consid¬ 
er  th*  quasi-studies  that  are  being  continually  forcod  into  the 
high  school  curricula  under  the  guise  of  vocational  courses*  Such 
courses  are  (I  copy  from  an  announcement  of  high  school  courses  of 
study  in  one  of  the  larger  cities)  garment  making  and  laundry  work 
applied  art,  millinery  and  dressmaking,  cookery,  home  economics, 
sewing,  cabinet  making  and  wood  turning,  pattern  making,  forging, 
mechanical  drawing,  foundry,  penmanship  and  applied  art,  stenogra- 

r 

phy  and  typewriting  or  commercial  art  or  salesmanship  or  geometry, 
industrial  geography,  commercial  law,  truck  gardening,  dairying, 
etc.,  etc.  '  Side  by  side  and  intermingled  with  those  quasi-stud¬ 
ies  are  advertised  English,  algebra,  Latin,  Physics,  and  the  other 
disciplinary  subjects.  We  find  that  in  the  schools  as  much  credit 
is  given  for  the  one  as  for  the  other.  We  hre  told  by  the  advo¬ 
cates  of  these  quasi-studies  that  thoy  have  equal  educational  and 
more  practical  value  than  the  disciplinary  subjects.  We  learn 
that  instead  of  studying  the  properties  of  a  circle  the  student 
may  as  well  be  making  the  pattern  of  a  wheel,  is  this  pattern  not 
a  geometrical  construction,  -  and,  if  the  wheel  has  a  bearing  upon 
some  other  wheel  or  pulley,  do  we  not  have  the  same  educational 
results  as  are  to  be  had  in  an  abstruse  deduction  which  is  drawn 
from  three  or  more  geometrical  propositions?  Such  and  similar  ar¬ 
guments  coming  from  school  principals  have  great  weight  with  many 
parents,  especially  those  who  have  in  mind  boys,  graduates  from 
high  schools  and  colleges,  who  later  have  turned  out  dismal  fail- 

Facts  are  nevertheless  facts,  and  the  training  derived  from 

2220 


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these  quasi-studies,  the  practical  subjects,  do  not  involve  one 
fifth  the  mental  training  of  the  disciplinary  studies.  Any  com¬ 
mittee  of  leading  teachers  in  a  high  school  will  attest  this  and  the 
pupils  themselves  prove  it,  since  they  invariably  regard  such  cours¬ 
es  as  exceedingly  easy. 

Now  if  the  people,  who  pay  for  the  schools,  wish  the  vocation- 
al  courses  in  such  great  profusion,  they  must  have  them;  but  as  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  observe,  the  people  have  been  consulted  very 
little  in  this  matter.  They  have,  it  is  true,  elected  a  board  of 
education,  in  whose  hands  such  questions  have  naturally  been  left; 
the  school  board  in  turn  has  turned  over  such  affairs  to  the  school 
superintendent.  The  school  superintendent  and  the  principals  in 
the  schools  in  most  cases  have  not  had  thorough  training  in  the 
disciplinary  subjects;  and  they  try  conscientiously  to  make  up  this 
defect  by  attending  Teachers T  Colleges  or  by  hearing  leading  expo¬ 
nents  of  such  colleges  at  the  Chautauqua  or  Summer  Schools. 

Through  these  teachers  the2^  get  but  little  knowledge  which  is  of  a 
disciplinary  value.  The  whole  trend  is  in  other  directions,  which 
unfortunately  require  less  work. 

In  the  same  camp  we  naturally  expect  to  find  the  theorists  in 
things  practical  and  the  pseudo  educational  reformers  who  them¬ 
selves  have  not  had  the  advantages  of  a  disciplinary  education  or 
who  fail  to  profit  therefrom. 

The  quasi-studies  requiring  but  little  mental  effort  attract 
groat  numbers  of  pupils  into  the  schools.  Picture  shows  under 

proper  direction  would  draw  greater  numbers.  These  numbers  in  the 

community  at  large  reflect  credit  upon  the  whole  school  system. 

2220 


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And  at  the  same  time  many  a  boy  chooses  these  "cinch”  courses,  who 
otherwise  would  have  been  greatly  benefitted  had  he  been  made  to 
take  the  mere  disciplinary  ones. 

5°.  Fifthly  I  shall  mention  briefly  a  number  of  reasons  that 
have  been  assigned  by  other  writers  for  the  low  scholarship  in  our 
schools • 

Y  YK'Vw> 

Mr o  Thomas  L.  Burt  in  the  Independent,  July-December  1907, p. 

737  points  out  that  the  American  school  year  contains  from  900  to 

>  J 

1000  school  hours  and  from  185  to  200  school  days,  the  length  of 
the  school  day  being  five  hours.  According  to  Mr.  Burt  the  Germans 
understand  the  value  of  persistence  and  continuity  in  the  training 
of  their  youth;  with  them  the  school  year  is  1400  school  hours  and 
270  school  days.  The  same  is  true  in  France  and  England.  He  fur¬ 
ther  writes  that  "teachers  should  see  to  it  that  the  public  demands 
more  of  them,  and  then  pays  them  more" *  There  might  be  something  in 
this  argument,  if  the  pupils  were  already  making  any  use  of  the 
time  thejr  are  now  spending  in  school. 

We  are  further  told  that  "we  are  a  more  nervous  race" ;  we  note 
that  girls  with  a  mors  nervous  organization,  do  as  well, perhaps 
better,  than  boys.  "We  have  a  larger  foreign  population";  "our 

climate  is  more  exacting,"  We  may  reply  that  the  Americans  have 
won  the  great  majority  of  contests  in  all  the  recent  Olympiads. 

We  hear  again  that  "our  teachers  are  poor."  Undoubtedly  they  shoul-t 
be  made  better.  It  is  also  claimed  that  "The  doctors  and  parents 
too  readily  excuse  the  children  from  school."  We  thus  find  a  long 
list  of  explanations  of  the  dilatory  scholarship  in  cur  schools. 
While  some  weight  must  be  given  to  these  causes,  I  claim  that  the 


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fundamental  reasons  are  to  be  found  under  the  previous  headings, 

I  do  not  wish  to  appear  satirical.  The  matter  is  a  very  ser¬ 
ous  one  and  one  in  which  very  many  are  interested. 

The  elective  system  doubtless  has  its  advantages,  if  it  is 
not  abused  before  the  junior  year  in  the  university;  we  all  wish 
to  see  the  children  amused  and  entertained,  if  at  the  same  time 
they  are  given  fixed  tasks  and  are  made  to  do  them.  Let  the  read¬ 
ing  be  made  interesting  but  at  the  same  time  let  the  children  be 
made  to  spell.  Picture  frames  and  butterflies  must  not  take  the 
pla.ee  of  reading,  r riting,  and  ’ riihnetlc,  There  may  be  better 
methods  than  those  in  vogue  for  teaching  some  subjects.  If  this 
is  true,  every  university  should  have  a  department  which  emphasiz¬ 
es  the  methods  of  good  teaching;  and,  as  most  students  in  the  ad¬ 
vanced  courses  expect  to  teach,  this  department  should  be  closely 
correlated  with  the  other  departments, 

I  am  opposed  to  Colleges  for  Teachers,  Every  professor, 
wherever  located,  should  be  an  "eternal  student";  and  if  such  pro¬ 
fessors  in  considerable  numbers  constitute  the  faculty  of  any 
-school,  that  school  would  eo_  ipso  be  a  university  and  should  be  so 
designated,  A  faculty  that  is  wanting  in  such  scholars  has  no 
place  in  an  educational  system.  If  a  tree  is  judged  by  its  fruit, 
the  same  is  true  of  a  scholar,  and  the  fruits  of  the  latter  are 
equally  realistic  and  convincing.  Scholarship  is  not  sufficiently 
emphasized  even  in  our  best  universities;  and  if  there  is  any  em~ 

t 

phasis  put  upon  it  elsewhere,  the  fruit  is  very  slow  in  ripening. 

As  the  fundamental  requirement  of  all  teachers  is  scholarship, 

the  nlace  where  it  may  be  best  acquired,  is  in  the  university, 

2220 


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is  certain  tiiat  whatever  good  a  Teachers*  College  may  contribute 
to  methods  o_  teaching  is  retained*  if’  the  best  members  of  such  a 
college  are  formed  into  a  department  of  a  university*  At  the  same 
time  we  could  advantageously  do  away  with  those  who  are  ever  will 

i 

ing  to  talk  about  " education"  and  are  eager  to  discuss  educational 

/ 

subjects,  but  who  themselves  have  no  definite  knowledge  of  anything 
I  believe  that  the  strength  of  a  university  is  to  be  found  in  the 
strength  of  its  component  departments  rather  than  in  a  great  num~ 
ber  of  schools  or  colleges  loosely  hung  together*"' 


*::-The  cbove  paper  was  read  before  a  club  consisting  of  teach¬ 
ers  of  a  university,  the  teachers  in  the  high  schools  and  those  in 
the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  of  the  elementary  schools*  After 
reading  the  paper  I  asked  those  present  to  write  on  slips  of  paper 
whether  or  not  they  agreed  with  what  had  been  said.  There  were 
fifty-four  answers  in  the  affirmative  and  one  in  the  negative. 

2220 


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II „  THE  PRESENT  CONDITION 


14 


Having  “briefly  given  at  least  four  underlying  causes,  due 
to  which  one  would  naturally  expect  a  deficient  scholarship  on 
the  part  of  the  pupils  in  our  high  schools,  let  me  next  consider 
the  present  condition  of  this  scholarship. 

The  following  is  taken  directly  from  notes  that  were  made 
at  meetings  of  a  committee  which  consisted  of  some  of  the  best 
and  most  influential  teachers, 

1°,  It  was  shown  that  a  pupil  could  fail  in  two  subjects,  arith¬ 
metic  and  algebra  counting  as  one  and  English  as  the  other 
in  the  eighth  grade,  and  be  promoted  to  high  school, 

2°.  There  are  ten  courses  advertised  in  the  high  school  course 
of  s tudy ,  In  these  different  courses  are  found  sufficient 
alternatives  to  make  more  than  ninety  different  courses  of 
study  which  a  pupil  may  choose.  The  boy  in  most  cases  vir¬ 
tually  selects  his  own  course,  persuades  his  parents  that 
this  is  the  best  one  for  him  to  take  and  presents  to  the 
school  principal  the  required  certificate  duly  signed  by 
his  parents.  If  the  pupils  get  any  advice  from  their  teach¬ 
ers,  the  teachers  in  most  cases  knowing  the  weaknesses  of 
the  pupils,  advise  them  to  take  the  courses  that  require 
the  least  mental  effort.  Thus  the  whole'  trend  is  away  from 
the  courses  which  have  always  been  considered  disciplinary, 

o°  Having  entered  high  school,  the  pupil  finds  again  that  he 
is  not  required  to  do  any  work.  If  he  is  found  very  defi¬ 
cient  in  any  subject,  he  is  not  only  allowed,  but  advised 
to  take  another  subject.  For  example,  Commercial  Law,  being 
of  an  elastic  nature,  may  be  substituted  at  any  time  for  a 
course  in  C-eometry.  To  avoid  congestion  in  this  grade,  the 
pupils  with  marks  from  50  to  70  are  passed  and  shoved  into 
the  next  grade.  A  teacher,  who  is  in  the  least  severe,  meets 
no  encouragement  from  any  one;  on  the  contrary,  he  is  often 
the  target  for  he  stile  criticism, 

4°,  Due  to  the  fact  that  pupils  with  little  effort  get  grades 
of  80  to  90  in  such  subjects  as  garment  making,  working 
button  holes,  sewing  on, buttons/  etc,,  teachers  in  Latin, 
English,  etc.,  have  a  tendency  to  give  like  grades  to  pupils 
who  in  reality  should  be  marked  40,  since  the  effort  required 
to  get  this  grade  40  in  Latin  is  more  than  that  required  to 
get  80  in  garment  making, 

5°,  The  same  conditions  are  continued  in  the  second  year  and 
throughout  the  high  school  course, 

0°,  At  least  thirty  per  cent  of  those  who  graduate  from  the 

2220, 


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15 


high  school  cannot  pass  in  the  work  of  the  elementary  schools. 

7° 3  These  pupils  are  admitted  with  open  arms  to  many  of  the  lead¬ 
ing  universities. 

8°.  The  same  conditions  exist  in  the  universities  as  in  the  high 
schools . 

9°.  There  are  no  standard  forms  of  grading  anywhere  in  the  sys- 
•  tem.  It  all  depends  upon  the  individual  teacher. 

10° o  The  teachers  themselves  declare  the  education  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  youth  to  be  incomplete  and  superficial,  and  that  this  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  too  many  subjects  have  been  forced  into 
the  schools,  that  the  ’'snap”  or  easy  courses  that  have  found 
their  way  into  the  schools  have  a  bad  effect  upon  the  general 
scholarship  of  the  pupils,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  in¬ 
tensive  scholarship  required  of  the  pupils,  and  that  they 
themselves  are  powerless  when  it  comes  to  making  the  pupils 
s  tud v . 

11°.  In  most  cases  the  pupil  leaves  school  without  knowing  how 
to  study, 

12°.  As  Professor  Paul  Shorey  puts  it,  the  pupil  is  "socially  pre¬ 
cocious  and  mentally  retarded,"  and  as  has  been  said,  ,?The 
result  of  this  superf iciality,  due  to  the  modern  tendencies 
in  education,  are  rapidly  sapping  the  virility  and  strength,- g 
from  the  characters  of  our  American  youth.” 

2220 


\ 


/ 


/ 


III.  THE  NATURAL  CON  SEQUENCE  3 


15 


A  celebrated  nerve  specialist,  Dr.  Charles  L.  Dana,  writes 
(see  Transactions  of  the  American  Neurological  Association,  1915): 

P.  439.  "Last  winter  the  committee  on  0111)110  health  of  the  New 
York  Academy  of  Medicine  referred  the  subject  of  mental 
fatigue  in  school  children  to  me  to  investigate  and  report 
upon  it.  Subsequently,  the  following  report  was  made  and 
adopted : 

"Your  committee  has  reached  the  conclusion  that  there 
is  no  serious  degree  of  mental  fatigue  produced  by  school 
work  in  the  usual  five-hour  limit,  and  that  it  is  not  neces¬ 
sary  to  shorten  the  school  hours  on  account  of  this  school 
work. 

P.  430.  "A  study  of  the  matter  led  to  the  conclusion  that  Amer¬ 
ican  children  in  the  eastern  schools,  at  least,  are  not  over¬ 
worked,  but  on  the  contrary  that  they  do  not  work  enough,  and 
that  they  are  often  educated  in  such  an  ineffective  way  that 
at  the  age  of  16  or  18  the  American  boys  are  about  two  years 
behind  the  boys  of  Germany,  France,  and  England.  This  loss 
of  time  and  retardation  in  education  I  found  was  generally 
admitted  (see  appendix)." 

Another  opinion  is  expressed  as  follows: 

"I  am  absolutely  convinced  that  during  his  school  course 
the  Gorman  boy  gains  about  two  years  in  development  over  the 
American  boy.  My  opinions  conform  to  the  generally  expressed 
opinions  of  educational  men’lExperiences  of  an  American  Ex¬ 
change  teacher  in  Germany*  Educational  Reviev;,  January,  1914. 

Wm.  H.  Smiley,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Denver,  Colo,  writes: 

"An  examination  of  the  curricula  of  good  European  sec¬ 
ondary  schools  and  the  papers  set  for  graduation  will  con¬ 
vince  anyone  that  at  the  completion  of  their  course  boys  of 
18  have  completed  work  in  the  fundamental  subjects  of  liter¬ 
ature,  mathematics,  and  science  equivalent  to  that  offered  in 
the  sophomore  year  of  the  American  colleges." 

Professor  Henry  A.  Perkins  in  the  Yale  Review,  1913,  writes :- 

P.  131.  "This  optimistic  view  (regarding  our  school  sjrstem)  was 
strengthened  at  about  the  same  time  by  a  report  of  the  Mosley 
Commission,  which  was  sent  to  this  country  from  England  to 
study  our  educational  methods.  The  report  praised  some  fea¬ 
tures  of  our  technical  schools  and  found  certain  things  de¬ 
serving  of  reproduction  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean.  But, 
although  the  report  commended  mainly  our  technical  training, 
and  did  not  even  pronounce  that  superior  in  all  respects,  it 
was  seized  upon  by  persons  of  spread-eagle  tendencies  as  a 
commendation  of  our  whole  educational  system;  and  we  may  now 
hear,  at  any  educational  conference,  complacent  assurances 
that  our  school  system  heads  the  world. 

137.  "The  rapid  progress  made  in  a  French  lycee  between  the 

ages  of  ten  and  fourteen  and  fifteen,  is  just  as  apparent 

•  poor) 

K/i  j  '*j\j 


P. 


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17 


to  anyone  who  has  looked  into  this  admirable  system.  By  the 
time  his  age  is  twelve  or  thirteen,  the  Frenoh  boy  is  read¬ 
ing  Livy,  Virgil,  and  even  Tacitus,  in  the  original,  and  is 
doing  an  amount  of  work  in  Latin  grammar  and  composition 
that  would  horrify  our  schoolmasters. 

P.  133.  "This  remarkably  rapid  development  is  made  possible  in 
France  by  a  variety  cf  means,  such  as  the  systematization 
of  all  instruction  under  the  Ministry  in  Paris,  and  the  tre¬ 
mendous  competition  among  the  students  for  scholastic  honors 
and  consequent  preferment  in  all  branches  of  government  ser¬ 
vice  later  in  life*  The  result  of  this  competition,  unknown 
in  this  country,  is  to  force  the  schoolboy  to  his  most  seri<- 
ous  efforts,  and  to  submit  to  an  amount  of  study  at  home  that 
would  not  be  tolerated  here®  Besides,  the  teachers  in  the 
lycee  are  more  highly  educated  than  are  our  usual  high  school 
teachers  because  of  the  competitive  system  under  which  they 
are  trained;  and  they  are  therefore  capable  of  imparting  a 
really  broad  culture  to  their  classes «  It  should  further  be 
noted  that  the  French  boy  is  allowed  but  few  outside  distrac¬ 
tions  from  the  main  business  of  his  life#  All  school  publi¬ 
cations  are  prohibited,  and  such  abominations  as  school  se¬ 
cret  societies  would  net  be  tolerated  for  an  instant.  Its 
members,  should  any  be  rash  enough  to  organize  one,  would 
be  promptly  expelled. 

"A  fact  we  must  constantly  have  in  mind  in  this  compar¬ 
ison  of  American  and  European  methods,  is  that  in  Europe  a 
child  of  ten  is  supposed  to  be  able  to  work  and  work  hard, 
and  there  is  little  pity  shown  either  to  the  dull  or  to  the 
lazy®  This  determination  to  keep  children  working  steadily, 
with  short  vacations  and  very  regular  hours  for  both  work 
and  play,  results  in  the  gain  of  two  whole  years  or  even  more 
by  the  time  the  student  reaches  the  university;  and,  as  I 
have  shown,  this  gain  is  made  largely  before  the  fifteenth 
37-ear.  At  that  age,  as  will  be  clear,  an  English  103/  is  at 
least  a  year  ahead  in  all  his  courses;  and  in  the  case  of 
Latin,  Greek,  and  mathematics , he  has  already  outdistanced 
us  bpr  two  years  or  more0  To  offset  this,  we  boast  a  smat¬ 
tering  of  several  so-called  practical  subjects,  which, though 
doubtless  useful  so  far  as  they  go,  do  not  involve  one  quar¬ 
ter  of  the  mental  training  given  by  the  older  studies,  and 
are  invariably  regarded  by  the  children  themselves  as  'cinch 
courses’ • 

"I  repeat,  then,  that  two  years  are  lost  in  our  educa¬ 
tional  programme,  lost  during  the  adolescent  37-earc,  and  are 
never  recovered  in  kind  at  any  stage  in  the  youth’s  mental 
development.  Can  we  permit  so  serious  a  loss  to  continue? 
Will  it  be  possible  for  the  United  States  to  hold  her  own, 
as  a  leading  power,  with  two  3/ears  of  each  schoolboy’s  life 
practically  annihilated  as  far  as  mental  growth  is  concerned? 
These  are  serious  questions;  and  we  are  bound  to  look  care¬ 
fully  into  the  causes  responsible  for  the  two  lost  years,  and 

o  bon 


% 


18 


to  see  whether  the  loss  is  inevitable  or  not,  and  if  not, 
how  it  may  be  prevented.” 

P.  140.  Hr.  Horace  Taft  of  the  Taft  School  has  said  in  this 
connection:  "All  other  reforms  and  questions  in  American 
education  are  unimportant,  compared  with  the  cure  of  flabbi¬ 
ness,  superficiality,  and  low  standard  of  the  early  training 
of  cur  pupils 0" 


Dr,  Dana  is  quoted  in  the  New  York  Herald,  January, 85,  1914,  as 
follows : - 

"We  all  know  that  the  college  boy  of  today  is  not  edu¬ 
cated,  that  he  does  not  want  to  be  educated  and  that  he  just 
wants  to  graduate  and  make  his  letter  or  secret  society. 

The  result  of  this  superficiality  is  showing  in  our  social 
and  political  life  today. 

"I  believe  that  medical  opinion  will  support  the  edu¬ 
cators  today  in  taking  the  boy  of  ten  years  and  making  him 
work  till  he  makes  up  the  years  he  is  now  foolishly  wasting. 
We  are  too  sentimental  toward  the  children  and  too  much  ■ 
stress  is  laid  on  their  caprices  and  nervosities. 

"I  also  think  that  the  American  child  is  cumbered  with 
a  variety  of  studies  that  are  of  no  value  to  him,  and  that 
the  time  taken  up  by  them  would  far  better  be  put  on  the  es¬ 
sentials  of  education.  Before  the  boy  is  sixteen  he  does 
not  know  what  he  wants  to  do  in  life  -  he  is  not  capable  of 
judging.  Instead  of  having  the  child  try  his  hand  at  car¬ 
pentry,  I  would  have  him  studying  for  the  discipline  of  the 
mind.  After  he  is  sixteen  his  training  should  be  specialized. 


One-time  President  Taft  criticised  the  general  tendency  on 
the  part  of  parents  to  defer  to  the  likes  and  dislikes  of  the 
children. 


"We  are  coddling  our  boys  and  girls,"  he  asserted.  "We 
are  giving  them  too  much  freedom;  we  are  humorizing  their 
immature  and  calloiir  preferences  and  desires  and  we  are  not, 
through  obedience  and  authority,  teaching  them  the  lessons 
that  are  essential  in  making  them  successful  and  useful  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  community o  More  than  this,  we  are  seeking  to 
cure  defects  in  our  education,  as  well  as  in  our  society,  by 
more  democracy.  We  have  had  the  ridiculous  exhibition  of 
school  children  striking  because  a  favorite  teacher  was  trans¬ 
ferred  and  weak  minded  parents  looking  with  pride  upon  the 
courage  and  enterprise  of  their  offspring. 


"A  mistake  of  the  same  kind  was  made  in  our  universi¬ 
ties,  in  the  adoption  of  the  general  optional  system,  on  the 
assumption  that  a  youth  of  seventeen  or  eighteen  was  compe¬ 
tent  to  select  the  branches  he  ought  to  pursue  in  receiving 
an  academic  education.  This  led  to  the  graduation  of  one¬ 
sided  young  men  from  academic  institutions  that  vre re  supposed 
to  turn  out  well  rounded  intellects  upon  which  further  educa¬ 
tion  in  the  professions  or  vocations  could  properly  be  based. 

oo  on 

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ITott  we  have  realized  the  mistake  of  the  universities  and 
there  has  been  a  reaction* ” 

Professor  Wm.  H.  Taft,  in  an  address  before  the  Feu  York 
State  Teachers’  Association  at  Rochester,  Few  York,  November  24th, 
1915,  according  to  the  Associate  Press  Dispatch,  '’criticised  the 
present  system  of  education  in  the  United  States  as  being  in 
many  instances  inefficient  and  superficial,  and  suggested 
that  the  Federal  Government  might,  through  a  system  of  in¬ 
spection  and  criticism,  aid  the  United  States  in  bringing 
about  higher  standards,  both  in  respect  to  teachers  and 
methods  0tf  Incidentally,  the  former  president  declared  that 
the  boys  of  England,  France  and  Germany  were  better  educated 
than  those  in  this  country.  ’’The  German  youth  of  15,”  he 
said,  "is  as  well  prepared  to  enter  a  college  course  as  our 
bo3^s  of  IS  and  19 .  ” 

As  a  proof  of  the  defect  of  the  present  system,  Mrt  Taft  re¬ 
ferred  to  the  report  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advance¬ 
ment  of  Teaching,  which  showed  that  the  local  school  superintend¬ 
ents  of  some  states  cannot  spell  or  write  good  English*  Mr*  Taft 
declared  that  ’’there  is  a  most  important  waste  of  valuable  human 
time  in  the  years  of  the  life  of  the  hoy  and  girl,  between 
six  and  14. years.  We  have  too  much  marking  time.  There  is 
no  reason  why  we  should  not  make  our  education  as  thorough 
and  useful  for  the  youth  as  that  in  France,  of  Germany,  or 
England, ” said  Prof.  Taft.  ”We,  as  parents,  have  been  content 
to  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance.  We  have  not  Insisted 
on  homo  discipline.  We  have  allowed  our  children  to  have 
their  way  far  more  than  foreign  children  have.” 

To  the  above  I  shall  add  an  extract  from  the  Report  of  the 
National  Council  of  Education  on  ’’Economy  of  Time  in  Education, 11 
U.  £3*  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  No.  548 . 

”¥e  approach  now  the  question  of  saving  time  in  the 
elementary  period  or  of  accomplishing  more  within  the  time. 
There  must  be  important  reasons  why  in  Germany,  France  and 
England  the  secondary  graduate  is  believed  to  be  two  years 
ahead  of  our  high  school  graduates,” 

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-X.ylEiJ-.ES 


I  have  shown  above  in  what  manner  the  scholarship  in  our 
schools  is  defective.  The  deficiencies  are  so  glaring  that  the 
school  authorities  should  not  only  admit  them  but  they  should 
make  them  known  to  the  people  in  general  and  in  particular  to  the 
parents  whose  children  are  to  be  educated *  The  time  has  come  for 
the  school  superintendents  and  the  teaching  fraternity  to  cease 
advertising  the  questionable  excellencies  of  their  schools  and  to 


go  to  work  to  overcome  the  defects  that  are  only  too  palpable. 

The  parents  apprised  of  existing  conditions  and  the  general  pub¬ 
lic  will  willingly  lend  a  helping  hand;  in  fact,  it  is  the  im- 

% 

perative  duty  of  everyone  to  assist  in  this  matter.  I  may  add 
here  some  of  the  required  remedies,  some  I  have  taken  from  vari¬ 
ous  writers,  others  suggest  themselves. 

The  committee  on  "Economy  of  Time  in  Education",  mentioned 

above,  say  that  — - - — 

% 

P.  15  "No  doctrine  has  been  more  harmful  than  that  one  sub¬ 

ject  of 'study  is  as  good  as  another,  and  that  all  subjects 
should  be  taught  alike;  arithmetic  is  a  tool  and  a  discipline 
in  absolute  accuracy;  literature,  history,  and  elementary 
science  in  this  period  are  for  culture. 

P,  16  "Simplify  the  courses  of  instruction;  cease  multiplying 

subjects;  concentrate  on  a  few  valuable  studies  — -  it  is  not 
necessary  to  take  all  the  sciences  in  a  high  school;  make 
college  entrance  requirements  reasonable The  great  mistake 
of  our  education  is  to  suppose  that  quantity  and  strain  con¬ 
stitute  education.  Education  is  a  question  of  doing  a  few 
essential  things  well  and  without  overstrain. 

P,  3 2  "We  must  provide  vocational  schools  for  those  who  go  to 

secondary  school,  but  not  to  college. 

P.  51  "Enriching  the  curriculum  was  a,  great  idea,  but  it  has 

been  subject  to  endless  abuse,  and  the  time  has  come  to  apply 
the  philosophy  of  the  ’simple  life’  to  education." 

"Simplify  the  school  courses,"  writes  Dr.  Dana,  "prune 
them  and  make  them  thorough;  then  put  the  boy  to  work  upon 
them,  so  that  he  will  know  something  well  when  he  is  turned 

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21 


out.  Why,  look  at  our  Rhodes  scholarship  men.  They  have  to 
fall  a  year  behind  when  they  get  to  England.  It  isn’t  merely 
the  difference  in  the  kinds  of  courses  -  it  is  because  they 
do  not  know  their  languages  and  their  mathematics.  Too  much 
stress  is  laid  upon  the  caprices  and  alleged  nervosities  of 
the  growing  child,  mental  work  is  net  only  healthful  but  it 
is  absolutely  beneficial  for  him,  and  there  is  nothing  so 
important  for  him,  as  to  be  impelled  to  do  hard  work  and  to 
finish  thoroughly  a  given  task.  The  American  youth  has  a 
brain  that  is  not  overworked,  and  it  needs  the  influence  of 

a  systematic  and  intelligent  but  hard,  hard  taskmaster . " 

•  » 

"The  European  idea  is  that  after  the  age  of  ten  a  child 
is  able,  to  do  hard  work  and  ought  to  do  it;  the  American 
idea  is  that  it  is  able  to  do  some  work,  and  ought  to  be 
persuaded  to  do  it." 

"We  are  giving  our  boys  and  girls  too  much  freedom," 
according  to  Hon«  Wm.  H.  Taft,  "we  are  humor izing  their  im¬ 
mature  ard  callow  preferences," 

As  Mr,  Taft  has  written,  we  have  realized  the  mistake, of  the 
universities  in  the  adoption  of  the  general  option  system,  and 
there  has  been  in  some  quarters  a  reaction.  The  minimum  require¬ 
ments  for  Yale  College  include 

English,  four  years, 

Latin,  four  years, 

Mathematics,  three  years; 

Modern  Languages,  two  years; 
and  four  electives. 

In  a  letter  of  recent  date  the  Registrar  of  Harvard  University 


writes : 


"Under  our  new  plan  of  admission  we  are  willing  to  con¬ 
sider  any  school  course  which  has  been  mainly  concerned  with 
language,  mathematics,  history  and  science."  Of  course,  the 
required  number  of  credits  must  be  made.  The  Registrar  of 
Bryn  Mawr  College  suggests  an  ideal  course  for  entrance  to 
that  college  as  follows 

English,  four  years  (four  periods  a  week), 

Latin,  four  years  (four  periods  a  week), 

Algebra,  two  years  (four  periods  a  woek), 

Geometry,  two  years  (four  periods  a  week), 

Science,  one  year  (four  periods  a  week). 

History,  one  year  (four  periods  a  week), 
also  two  of  the  following  languages: 

French,  German,  or  Greek  for  three  years 

(four  periods  a  week). 


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Dartmouth  lloge  frviews  with  apprehension  the  issuance  of 


a  certificate  to  a  pupil  whose  standing  is  below  85,"  Princeton 
has  always  been  rigorous  in  her  requirements;  the  western  univer¬ 
sities  have  been  less  exacting  and  have  thereby  gained  a  greater 
number  of  students  and  the  resulting  deficient  scholarship . for  example 
a  law  was  enacted  about  a  year  ago  in  the  State  of  Ohio  whereby 
the  State  University  is  required  to  accept  graduates  of  any  school 
that  is  rated  by  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 
as  first  grade.  Such  a  law  is  palpably  nefarious,  since  it  works 
against  tho  very  students  who  were  intended  to  be  the  beneficiary 
ies.  For  necessarily  the  requirements  made  in  the  University 
cause  an  exceedingly  large  mortuary  among  students  who  otherwise 
would  not  have  entered. 

There  should  be  given  in  the  high  schools  two  courses  with 
distinct  certificates  on  their  completion: 

1°.  The  one  should  lead  to  the  university,  the  professions, 
engineering  schools,  etc.  Pupils  who  desire  a  liberal  education 
should  take  this  course.  The  course  must  be  restricted  to  sueh 
subjects  as  are  outlined  above  in  the  Harvard  and  Bryn  Mawr  re¬ 
quirements  and  the  standard  of  scholarship  must  be  at  least  85, 

2°.  The  other  course  should  lead  to  the  vocations,  domestic 
science,  manual  training,  music,  art,  etc. 

During  the  first  two  years  the  courses  should  be  practically 
tho  sane;  after  these  two  years  a,  .number  of  alternatives  may  be 
allowed  in  either  course.  The  pupils  must  be  made  to  study;  and 
the  teachers  must  be  able  to  act  as  intelligent,  and  if  necessary, 
hard  taskmasters. 

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Every  phase  of  aducation  applying  to  all  the  grades  of  every 
school  and  including  the  scholarship  and  teaching  ability  of  every 
teacher  should  bo  standardized,.  In  other  words,  there  must  be  def- 
inite  standards  for  all  pupils  and  for  all  teachers. 

This  can  only  be  done  through  the  systematization  of  all 
instruction  under  a  department  of  education  at  Washington.  Over 
this  department  there  must  be  a  secretary  of  education  having 
like  rank  as  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  *  for  example.  The  Sec- 

i 

rotary,  a  man  himself  distinguished  either  in  the  Sciences  or 
letters,  with  competent  groups  of  experts  from  the  best  universi¬ 
ties  in  this  country  and  abroad,  must  make  exhaustive  studies  of 
existing  conditions.  Definite  data  must  be" had  before  we  can 
have  any  scientific  basis  upon  which  ytg  can  work.  A  report  made 
by  a  single  individual  or  by  a  group  of  men,  particularly  when 
they  are  otherwise  engaged  as  school  superintendents,  college 

professors  and  the  like,  has  on  the  face  of  it  but  little  value. 

# 

Through  this  department,  as  hr.  Taft  has  pointed  cut,  "the 
national  Government  might  help  to  promote  State  education  by  of¬ 
fering  machinery  to  the  people  of  a  municipality,  of  a  county,  or 
of  a  state,  by  which  they-  might,  if  they  choose,  have  the  schools 
they  pay  for,  investigated  and  examined  and  the  value  of  the  ed¬ 
ucation  given,  tested  by  a  survey  or  report  of  officers  of  the 
department.  Such  officers  should  be  trained  experts." 

The  distinction  I  make,  is  that  it  will  be  incumbent  upon 
the  department  to  make  these  examinations  from  time  to  time.  I 
am,  however,  absolutely  opposed  to  Mr.  TaftTs  suggestion  of  having 

a,  National  Normal  School  at  Washington  to  carry  out  the  above  plan. 

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24 


For  the  experts  would  soon  he  the  the  ones  that  have  been  trained 
in  snoh  a  normal  institution  and  we  would  soon  he  intensifying  the 

conditions  which  we  are  most  desirous  of  changing.  I  believe  that 

% 

Mr.  Taft  will  find  that  practically  every  one  of  his  colleagues  in 

Yale  University  will  agree  with  what  I  have  written. 

In  the  annual  expenditure  of  the  $750,000*000.00  upon  the 

public  school  system*  the  Secretary  of  Education  will  soon  find 

that  his  department  may  exorcise  its  good  offices  for  the  public 

welfare  in  a  manner  that  is  of  equal  importance  with  any  of  the 

other  departments  at  Washington. 

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The  Underlying;  pauses  of  the  defective  scholarship  in  our 
schools  as  indicated  above,  are 

1°.  The  free  election  of  too  many  subjects  which  are  given 
equal  weight  in  the  school  curriculum.  Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot  in 
a  recent  paper  prepared  for  the  general  educational  board  speaks 
of  the  "glaring  deficiencies"  in  secondary  schools.  The  former 
President  of  Harvard  University  was  one  of  the  principal  agents 
in  inaugurating  a  free  election  of  courses;  and  in  my  opinion  a 
final  analysis  will  show  that  he  contributed  more  than  anyone 
elso  toward  these  "deficiencies."  It  may  be  added  that  since 
his  retirement  from  Harvard,  a  "new"  set  of  entrance  requirements 
have  been  made  in  that  University. 

f°c  In  the  Kindergarten  the  child  must  be  interested,  in 
the  university  the  student  expects  entertainment,  and  throughout 
the  whole  system  there  is  a  desire  to  be  amused. 

3°.  The  unscientific  methods  of  instruction  found  in  col¬ 
leges  for  teachers  are  not  conducive  to  sound  education.  One 
cannot  reprehend  sufficiently  the  demands  made  by  school  au¬ 
thorities  whereby  prospective  teachers  are  induced  or  compelled 
to  put  more  emphasis  upon  methods  of  teaching  than  upon  the  ac¬ 
quisition  of  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  subjects  they  oxpect 
to  teach.  I  have  no  objection  to  the  requirement  of  any  amount 
of  pedagogy  of  those  who  intend  to  become  school  principals  or 
superintendents but  I  contend  that  the  teachers  who  expect  to 
teach  in  the  elementary  schools,  should  be  required  to  have  a 
comprehensive  knowledge  of  subjects  taught  in  these  schools  be¬ 
fore  they  are  given  Teachers’  certificates. 

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In  the  secondary  schools  a  teacher  who  expects  to  teach 
should  know  his  subject  sufficiently  well  to  he  able  to  take 
graduate  courses  in  it;  he  should  be  encouraged, though  not  re¬ 
quired,  to  take  graduate  courses,  as  opportunity  arises. 


It  will  be  found  that  these  requirements  are  far  below  the 
standards  set  in  either  France  or  Germany,  In  these  countries 
rigorous  examinations  are  held  in  all  subjects  that  the  candidate 
is  required  to  teach.  When  one  reads  the  quotation  below  from 
the  Unpopular  Review,  it  will  be  seen  that  I  am  more  than  conserv¬ 
ative  in  my  criticism  relative  to  pedagogy.  My  contention  is 
"that  whatever  good  a  Teachers’  College  may  contribute,  is  re¬ 


tained  if  the  best  members  of  such  a  college  are  formed  into  a 

department  of  a  university , " 

Unpopular  Review,  Jan,  -  March,  1916,  page  6d-0 

”0f  the  innumerable  college  men  with  whom  1  have  talked, 
not  one  has  ever  expressed  anything  but  contempt  for  the 
department  of  pedagogy  as  an  educational  futility,  and  abhor¬ 
rence  of  it  as  a  meddling  nuisance.  Yet,  in  many  of  our 
state  universities,  even  in  some  endowed  institutions,  the 
professional  pedagogue  is  feared  as  one  of  the  powers  behind 
the  throne.  This  is  due  to  the  tyranny  of  school  boards  and 
town  councils  acting  through  regents  and  president.  Thus  in 
one  state  where  I  am  acquainted,  no  man  or  woman  is  licensed 
to  teach  in  a  high  school  who  has  not  pursued  three  years  of 
pedagogical  studies ;  and  this  absurdity,  in  greater  or  less 
measure,  prevails  elsewhere.  Now  the  student  in  these 
courses  loses  precious  time  which  he  might  devote  to  learn¬ 
ing  the  subjects  he  is  likely  to  teach,  and,  as  a  recompense, 
of  the  method  of  teaching  learns  nothing  at  all  which  has 
even  the  most  remote  utility.  That  is  a  broad  statement, 
but  it  needs  no  proof  among  college  men.  The  pedagogical 
department,  when  the  flummery  of  words  is  stripped  away,  is 
not  a  piece  for  teaching  anything  that  anybody  knows;  it  is 
mainly  a  machine  for  recording  jobs  and  getting  men  into 
them,  and  it  systematically  lowers  the  tone  of  whatever  it 
touches.  It  is  suffered  because  it  draws  prospective  teach¬ 
ers,  who  'would  fear  to  stand  on  their  merits  as  men  amid 
scholars;  and  it  is  the  last  and  one  of  the  most  noxious  of 
the  evils  flowing  from  our  quantitative  standard.  This  huge 
and  wriggling  arm  of  the  school  octopus,  reaching  up  to  the 
college  and  sucking  it  steadily  downwards,  I  'would  hack  at 


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1 


with  every  sharp  instrument  in  my  grasp;  and  if  I  should 
succeed  in  cutting  it  off,  the  .schools  themselves,  being 
forced  to  follow  the  higher  institution  instead  of  trying 
to  lead,  would  he  benefitted  as  much  as  the  college ,R 

4,  Vocational  studies.  It  will  he  seen  in  the  next  paper 
that  men  who  are  very  prominent  in  the  world  of  affairs^,  recom¬ 
mend.  that  hoys  in  high  school  take  the  studies  that  are  disciplin¬ 
ary.  They  put  no  emphasis  whatever  upon  vocational  studies  in  the 
schools » 

5,  Under  a  fifth  heading  are  included  the  ,r shortness  of 
the  school  year’1 ,  "the  nervousness  of  the  American  race”,  ”bad 
climate”,  "poor  teachers”,  etc. 

% 

The  Present  Condition 

It  is  shown  that  the  pupils  do  not  study  and  that  the 
teachers  are  not  in  a  position  to  make  them  work. 

The  Natural  Consequences 

As  one  would  suspect,  the  American  youth  of  seventeen  years 
is  three  years  behind  the  English,  French  or  German  hoy  of  the 
same  age.  Convincing  data  are  given  for  this  statement. 

The  Required  Remedies 

Concentrate  on  a  few  valuable  subjects.  Eliminate  vocation¬ 
al  studies  entirely  from  the  courses  that  lead  to  College,  School 
of  Engineering,  Law,  Medicine,  Theology,  etc.  The  professors  in 
these  schools  much  prefer  students  who  have  taken  the  disciplin¬ 
ary  subjects.  '  Set  a  fair  standard  of  scholarship  in  these  sub¬ 
jects  and  require  the  pupils  to  come  up  to  the  mark.  Do  not  al¬ 
low  them  to  pass  in  a  subject  in  which  they  have  done  poor  work. 

Encourage  proficiency  in  the  teachers.  Recognize  the  fact  that 

2220 


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28 


we  are  behind  other  countries  in  the  educational  world,  eliminate 

i 

the  defects  of  our  system  of  education  and  improve  this  system 

until  Y/o  are  at  least  abreast  with  the  times. 

oo  on 


\  v 


[Reprinted  from  School  and  Society,  Vol.  /.,  No.  25,  Pages  898-900,  June  19,  1915 ] 


WHAT  COURSE  OF  STUDY  SHOULD  BE  TAKEN  BY  A  BOY  WHO  IS 

ENTERING  HIGH  SCHOOL? 


Almost  every  one  will  agree  with  the  philos¬ 
opher  Kant  that  the  greatest  concern  of  man  is 
to  know  how  he  shall  fill  properly  his  place  in 
the  universe  and  shall  understand  correctly 
what  he  must  be  in  order  to  be  a  man;  and 
almost  every  teacher  will  agree  with  William 
of  Wykeham  that  the  chief  end  of  education  is 
“  the  making  of  a  man.” 

If  the  best  way  to  make  any  thing  is  to  be 
found  in  the  final  product  of  the  making,  then 
in  the  case  of  a  man  it  is  the  man ;  and,  as  ex¬ 
perience  is  knowledge,  no  one  knows  so  well  the 
processes  through  which  a  man  has  been  made, 
as  that  man. 

All  teachers  are  concerned  in  the  part  that 
education  plays  in  this  man-making  process, 
and  it  must  be  of  interest  to  them  to  note 
what  studies  a  man  who  is  a  man  would  advise 
a  boy  to  take. 

Desiring  to  get  this  information,  I  have  sent 
the  circular-letter  found  below  which  explains 
itself;  and  to  see  in  how  far  there  is  a  con¬ 
sensus  of  opinion  I  have  tabulated  the  two 
sets  of  answers,  the  one  set  from  men  outside 
of  Cincinnati,  the  other  of  men  resident  in 
this  city. 

It  may  be  well  to  note  the  correspondence 
between  these  two  sets  of  answers;  for  I  can 
see  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  answers  from 
the  residents  of  any  city  other  than  Cincin¬ 
nati  will  differ  from  the  first  set  of  answers 
more  than  do  the  answers  of  the  Cincinnatians. 

A  number  of  the  gentlemen  have  not  only 
been  good  enough  to  answer  the  questions,  but 
they  have  also  been  sufficiently  interested  to 
write  letters  in  which  they  set  forth  their  ideas 
of  education.  These  letters  will  be  printed  and 
distributed  in  separate  form;  for  they  must 


necessarily  prove  of  great  assistance  for  the 
guidance  of  boys  in  the  selections  of  their 
studies,  in  particular  the  boys  who  have  no 
competent  advisers. 

THE  CIRCULAR-LETTER  THAT  WAS  SENT  OUT 
University  of  Cincinnati 

April  12,  1915 

Bear  Sir:  You  no  doubt  know  that  commissioners 
are  appointed  from  time  to  time  to  revise  and  im¬ 
prove  the  courses  of  study  in  the  schools  and  col¬ 
leges.  Such  problems  as  the  national  development 
in  education ,  the  social  and  national  needs,  the 
welfare  of  the  commonwealth,  etc.,  are  being  con¬ 
sidered  constantly,  but  by  men  who  for  the  most 
part  are  primarily  educators. 

Through  systems  of  education  the  great  men  in 
all  vocations  of  life  are  produced,  the  men  who 
supervise  the  welfare  of  the  country  and  who  guide 
its  destinies.  If  such  men  by  their  counsels  would 
take  an  active  part  in  the  direction  of  the  educa¬ 
tion  of  the  youth  of  the  country,  there  are  many 
who  believe  that  our  educational  systems  would  be 
greatly  improved.  For  as  education  makes  better 
men,  better  men  are  able  to  make  better  systems  of 
education,  so  that  the  cycle  of  improvement  is  con¬ 
tinuous. 

With  the  desire  of  getting  the  views  of  such 
men,  men  who  are  not  directly  connected  with  the 
teaching  fraternity,  and  wishing  to  have  these 
views  placed  so  that  they  may  be  compared  with 
the  ideas  and  theories  that  are  being  promulgated, 
I  propose  to  make  the  following  investigation: 

From  a  distinguished  lawyer  I  have  the  names 
of  thirty  men  among  the  leading  members  of  the 
bar  in  the  United  States;  a  prominent  physician 
has  given  me  the  names  of  thirty  among  the  emi¬ 
nent  medical  men;  similarly  I  have  procured  the 
names  of  thirty  very  learned  clergymen.  An 
equal  number  of  names  has  been  furnished  me  of 
men  of  affairs  nationally  prominent,  bankers  and 
railroad  officials. 


2 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


For  a  second  investigation  I  have  the  names  of 
one  hundred  and  eighty  among  the  most  promi¬ 
nent  Cincinnatians. 

To  these  men  and  women  I  am  sending  the  in¬ 
closed  questions;  and,  if  their  answers  seem  to 
tend  in  any  definite  direction,  I  shall  publish  the 
results  in  School  and  Society,  edited  by  Pro¬ 
fessor  Cattell,  of  Columbia  University. 

I  hope  that  I  shall  get  results  which  will  cause 
others  to  make  similar  investigations  in  different 
communities.  These  combined  observations  should 


attention,  and  I  beg  that  you  will  answer  the  ques¬ 
tions  below.  Yours  very  truly, 

Harris  Hancock 

Which  of  the  following  courses  in  a  high  school 
would  you  advise  a  boy  to  take? 

no.  1 

A  course  where  both  mathematics  and  the  classics 
are  optional;  for  example,  where  history  is  sub¬ 
stituted  for  mathematics. 


prove  of  much  educational  interest  as  well  as  of 
practical  value. 

You  have  been  included  in  my  list.  I  trust  that 
you  will  consider  the  investigation  worthy  of  your 


no.  2 

A  course  where  mathematics  is  required,  the  clas¬ 
sics  being  optional.. 


Business  Men 


'P, 


1 


Chas.  E.  Adams . 

Cleveland 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

( B ) 

Yes 

Ralph  Albertson . 

New  York 

No.  2 

(A) 

Yes 

( B ) 

No 

Louis  Annin  Ames . 

New  York 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Frank  B.  Anderson . 

San  Francisco 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

TVmrlow  Weed  Rarnes 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Enos  M.  Barton . 

Chicago 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

W.  K.  Bixby . 

St.  Louis 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Joel  W.  Burdick . 

Pittsburgh 

No.  4 

(A) 

_ _ 

(B) 

Yes 

Chas.  Calwell . 

Philadelphia 

No.  2 

(A) 

Yes 

{B) 

Yes 

W.  H.  Canniff . 

Cleveland 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Benj.  Carpenter . 

Chicago 

No.  2  or  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Wm.  D.  Clause . 

Pittsburgh 

Elective 

(A) 

Yes  if  elective 

Chas.  R.  Flint . 

New  York 

No.  3 

Jas.  B.  Forgan . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

C B ) 

Yes 

William  Fortune . 

Indianapolis 

No.  2 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

J.  P.  Frenzel . 

Indianapolis 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Wm.  H.  Gardner . 

Roston 

No.  1 

(A) 

(B) 

Yes 

Philetus  W.  Gates . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

J.  J.  Glessner . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

Walker  D.  Hines.  . .  . 

New  York 

No.  2 

(A) 

(B) 

Yes 

Henry  Holt . . 

New  York 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

J.  Kirby . 

Dayton 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

J.  Kruttschnitt .  . 

(A) 

(B) 

Yes 

Joshua  B.  Lippincott . 

Philadelphia 

No.  4 

Andrew  MacLeish . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

W.  A.  Marble . 

New  York 

No.  1 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

Henry  L.  Mason . 

Boston 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

William  J.  McKee . 

Indianapolis 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes  for  primary  schooling 

M.  L.  Milligan . . 

Springfield,  0. 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

E.  B.  Morris . 

No.  2  or  4 

(A) 

* 

(B) 

Yes 

Chas.  A.  Otis . 

Cleveland 

No.  4 

Frederick  J.  Paxon . 

Atlanta 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Seward  Prosser . 

New  York 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

Blanchard  Randall . 

Baltimore 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

Wm.  A.  Robinson . 

Louisville 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

F.  W.  Scott . 

P level  a  nd 

No.  4  or  2 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

A.  L.  Shapleigh . 

St.  Louis 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

E.  T.  Shanbacker . 

Philadelphia 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Edwin  L.  Shuey . 

Dayton 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

( B ) 

No 

A.  B.  Spreckels . 

San  Francisco 

No.  4 

Judd  Stewart . 

New  York 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(P) 

Yes 

Ambrose  Swasey . 

Plevel  and 

No.  2 

(A) 

(B) 

Yes 

Frank  Arthur  Vanderlip . 

New  York 

No.  4 

C.  P.  Wal bridge . 

St.  Louis 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Morris  Whitridge . 

Baltimore 

No.  4  or  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Daniel  Willard . 

Baltimore 

No.  2 

(A) 

Yes  for  lower  schools 

Chas.  Woollen . 

Indianapolis 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


3 


College  Faculty 


Miss  L.  H.  Carnell . 

Philadelphia 

No.  3  or  4 

(A) 

No 

( B ) 

Yes 

Mr.  Frederick  A.  Hall . 

St.  Louis 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

( B ) 

Yes 

Mr.  H.  M.  Raymond . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Theologians 


Chas.  F.  Aked . 

San  Francisco 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

C.  P.  Anderson . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

0 B ) 

Yes 

L.  W.  Batten . 

New  York 

No.  2 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

W.  C.  Bitting . 

St.  Louis 

No.  4  or  2 

George  Hodges . 

Cambridge 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

( B ) 

No 

Bishop  Edwin  H.  Hughes . 

San  Francisco 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

D.  E.  Jenkins . 

Omaha 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

Carter  Helm  Jones . 

Seattle 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

Warren  H.  Landon . 

San  Francisco 

No.  4 

M.  A.  Matthews . 

Seattle 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

( B ) 

Yes 

for  specialists 

James  G.  K.  McClure . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

Bishop  Francis  McConnell . 

Denver 

He  believes  in 

the  “trying  out”  system 

Bishop  Wm.  F.  McDowell . 

Evanston 

No.  1 

It  depends  upon  boy 

Wallace  Radcliffe . 

Washington 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes  for  youth 

( B ) 

Yes  for  matured  student 

Robert  W.  Rogers . 

Madison,  N.  J. 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(■ B ) 

Yes 

W.  Merle  Smith  . 

New  York 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(■ B ) 

No 

Rev.  John  T.  Stone . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(■ B ) 

Yes 

Bishop  David  Tuttle . 

St.  Louis 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(■ B ) 

Yes 

Bishop  John  H.  Vincent . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

for  discipline  and  power 

Charles  Wood . 

Washington 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

Lawyers 


Simeon  E.  Baldwin . 

New  Haven 

No.  4 

(If  for  college) 

(A) 

No 

C B ) 

Yes 

S.  S.  Gregory . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

( B ) 

No 

Wade  H.  Ellis . 

Washington 

No.  2 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

— 

Peter  S.  Grosscup . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

Frederick  N.  Judson . 

St.  Louis 

No.  2  or  4 

(A) 

Yes  and  if  practical  in  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  a  few  subjects 

Roscoe  Pound . 

Cambridge,  Mass. 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Henry  Wade  Roger . 

Yale 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Hoke  Smith . 

Washington 

No.  2 

(A) 

— 

(B) 

Yes 

Moorfield  Storey . 

Boston 

No.  4  or  2 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

John  Barton  Payne . 

Chicago 

No.  2 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

Physicians 


L.  F.  Barker . 

Baltimore 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes  in  early  educ. 

(B) 

Yes  in  later  educ. 

Frank  Billings . 

Chicago 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

E.  H.  Bradford . 

Boston 

No.  4 

(A) 

— 

(B) 

Yes 

Lawrason  Brown . 

Saranac  Lake 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

George  Dock . 

New  Orleans 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

W.  C.  Gorgas . 

Washington 

Allow  the  boy  to  choose  course 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

W.  D.  Gatch . 

Indianapolis 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

Alfred  C.  Gray . 

Richmond,  Va. 

No.  4 

W.  W.  Keen . 

Philadelphia 

No.  4 

(A) 

No 

(B) 

Yes 

W.  J.  Mayo . 

Rochester 

No.  3  with  Science 

Chas.  Minor . 

Ashland,  N.  C. 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

Yes 

M.  M.  Portis . 

Chicago 

No.  2 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

R.  L.  Wilbur . 

San  Francisco 

No.  1 

(A) 

No 

(A) 

Yes 

Cunningham  Wilson . 

Birmingham 

No.  2  or  4 

(A) 

Yes 

(B) 

No 

John  A.  Wyeth.  .  . . 

New  York 

No.  4 

(A) 

Yes 

( B ) 

No 

4 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


NO.  3 

A  course  where  the  classics  are  required,  mathe¬ 
matics  being  optional. 

no.  4 

A  course  requiring  both  the  classics  and  mathe¬ 
matics. 

Please  indicate  also  in  the  blank  spaces  what 
other  courses  of  study  you  would  recommend. 

Do  you  believe  (A)  in  a  general  knowledge  of  a 
great  number  of  subjects?  or  ( B )  in  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  a  few  subjects? 

Besides  the  members  of  college  faculties 
there  were  purposely  omitted  engineers,  archi¬ 
tects,  builders  of  all  kinds,  inventors,  army 
and  navy  officers,  in  short,  all  men  who  have 
required  mathematical  training  in  their  pro¬ 
fessions.  Three  faculty  members  have  kindly 
answered  letters  which  were  no  doubt  turned 
over  to  them. 

In  the  following  list  it  may  be  noted  that 
after  the  name  of  Mr.  Albertson,  for  example, 
No.  2  means  that  he  chose  course  No.  2  above 
while  Yes  in  the  column  after  (A)  signifies 
that  he  answered  question  (A)  above  in  the 
affirmative. 

Miscellaneous 

A  few  of  the  answers  were  unsigned. 

These  included: 

One  preference  for  No.  1. 

Three  preferences  for  No.  2. 

Four  preferences  for  No.  4. 

Question  (A)  was  answered  three  times  Yes, 

twice  No. 

Question  (-B)  was  answered  four  times  Yes, 

once  No. 

SUMMARY 

N on-residents  of  Cincinnati 


No.  1 

No.  2 

No.  3 

No.  4 

No.  2  or 

4 

No.  1,  2, 

3  or  4 

No.  1  or 

4 

20  clergymen . 

1 

1 

0 

17 

1 

o 

0 

47  business  men . 

2 

18 

1 

20 

5 

1 

0 

15  physicians . 

1 

1 

1 

10 

1 

1 

0 

9  lawyers . 

0 

2 

0 

5 

2 

o 

0 

8  miscellaneous . 

1 

3 

0 

4 

0 

0 

0 

99  total . 

5 

25 

2 

56 ' 

9 

2 

0 

No.  3 
or  4 

3  heads  of  college  faculties 

0 

0 

0 

2 

1 

In  a  separate  bulletin  I  shall  add  the  names 
of  the  Cincinnatians  who  voted;  but  to  save 
space  I  shall  give  here  only  a  summary  of  their 

answers. 

Cincinnatians 


No.  1 

No.  2 

No.  3 

No.  4 

No.  2 

or  4 

No.  1, 

2  or  3 

No.  1 

or  4 

15  clergymen . 

1 

2 

0 

9 

2 

1 

0 

41  business  men . 

2 

17 

0 

19 

2 

0 

1 

17  physicians . 

2 

7 

0 

6 

2 

0 

0 

26  lawyers . 

i 

4 

0 

18 

3 

0 

0 

6  miscellaneous . 

i 

4 

0 

1 

0 

0 

0 

105  total . 

7 

34 

0 

53 

9 

1 

1 

To  the  questions  (A)  and  ( B )  the  answers 
were : 

N on-residents  of  Cincinnati 


Question  (4) 

Question  (R) 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

No 

Business  men . 

16 

20 

32 

4 

Clergymen . 

11 

5 

12 

4 

College  fac . 

0 

3 

3 

0 

Lawyers . 

5 

3 

6 

2 

Physicians . 

7 

5 

8 

5 

Miscellaneous . 

3 

2 

4 

1 

Total . 

42 

38 

65 

16 

Cincinnatians 


Question  (4) 

Question  (5) 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

No 

Business  men . 

17 

11 

16 

7 

Clergymen . 

9- 

5 

12 

1 

Lawyers . 

9 

11 

18 

3 

Physicians . 

6 

9 

12 

2 

Miscellaneous . 

2 

3 

3 

1 

Total . 

43 

39 

61 

14 

N.  B.  These  answers  were  not  exclusive;  for 
example,  many  marked  yes  to  both  (A)  and  (B). 


Dr.  Theodore  Janeway,  of  the  Johns  Hopkins 
Hospital,  wrote: 

It  seems  to  me  that  nothing  requires  more  indi¬ 
vidualization  than  the  decision  as  to  what  type  of 
preparatory  course  is  desirable  for  a  particular  boy, 
both  with  reference  to  his  personal  aptitude  and  to 
the  vocation  which  he  expects  to  select  subsequently. 
I  do  not  feel  that  I  could  possibly  answer  such 
general  questions  as  you  propose. 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


5 


A  letter  from  Dr.  Bardeen,  of  the  University 
of  Wisconsin,  is  as  follows: 

I  do  not  feel  that  I  can  give  a  categorical  answer 
to  the  four  questions  on  the  enclosed  blank;  so 
much  depends  on  the  boy  and  the  high  school.  I 
firmly  believe  that  high-school  training  should  re¬ 
quire  hard  work,  and  that  the  aim  should  be  to  give 
a  thorough  drill  in  a  few  subjects  rather  than  to 
cover  a  large  number  of  subjects  superficially. 

Dr.  Charles  W.  White,  of  the  University  of 
Pittsburgh,  wrote: 

I  have  been  much  interested  in  your  circular 
letter,  but  it  brings  up  to  me  what  I  think  is  the 
fundamental  weakness  of  all  our  educational  work, 
and  this  is  that  we  are  constantly  endeavoring  to 
make  a  single  machine  turn  out  a  finished  product 
of  widely  varying  character.  Each  year  I  have  to 
deal  with  education  I  am  more  convinced  that  no 
universal  plan  of  primary  education  will  fit  all  men 
for  every  kind  of  later  education. 

A  classical  education  would  obviously  be  a  better 
ground-work  for  the  biological  sciences,  as  mathe¬ 
matics  would  be  a  better  ground-work  for  the  phys¬ 
ical  sciences;  so  I  think  it  should  be  incumbent 
upon  each  teacher,  through  whose  hands  a  child 
passes,  to  report  to  some  central  officer  in  the  given 
school  district  on  the  adaptabilities  of  each  indi¬ 
vidual  pupil,  and  on  the  result  of  these  original 
opinions  the  child ’s  future  studies  should  be  based. 

Similar  letters  have  been  received  from  Mr. 
U.  N.  Bethell,  president  of  the  New  York  Tele¬ 
phone  Company;  Mr.  Waldo  Newcomer, 
banker,  Baltimore,  and  Hon.  R.  S.  Taylor,  Ft. 
Wayne,  Ind. 

From  the  Cincinnatians  were  received  eight 
letters  giving  as  answers: 

‘‘So  much  depends  upon  the  boy,”  “Depends 
upon  the  after  career,”  “Depends  upon  the  fu¬ 
ture  requirement  of  the  student,”  “Only  teachers 
coming  into  daily  touch  for  a  long  period,  with 
pupils  of  varied  abilities,  are  fully  competent  to 
judge  of  the  working  of  courses  of  instruction,” 
etc. 

These  letters  caused  me  to  send  to  all  the 
teachers  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  of 
the  Cincinnati  schools  a  letter  containing  two 
questions : 

Question  (a).  Out  of  every  one  hundred  boys 

that  you  have  taught,  how  many  do  you  believe 


have  consulted  you  regarding  their  future  careers 
and  have  profited  by  your  advice? 

Question  (&).  Before  entering  high  school,  out 
of  every  one  hundred  boys,  how  many  do  you  think 
have  definitely  decided  upon  their  future  careers? 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  read  the  answers  to 
these  questions.  The  answers  of  any  one  per¬ 
son  to  questions  (a)  and  ( b )  are  separated  by 
a  comma  and  these  two  answers  are  separated 
by  a  semi-colon  from  those  of  the  next  person 
as  follows: 


5, 

5; 

2,  7 

;  5,5;  1,0; 

0,1; 

10, 

3; 

2, 

7; 

0,  0; 

o, 

3; 

3,  1 

;  5,3;  0,1; 

2,5; 

o, 

5; 

4,12; 

0,10; 

3, 

5; 

5,  ? 

5  4,0;  2,5; 

0,0; 

5, 

5; 

1, 

5; 

1,  5; 

5,12; 

0,  0 

;  5,1;  0,0; 

0,?; 

1, 

i; 

1, 

i; 

10,  5; 

2, 

5; 

2,  4 

;  5,3;  1,1; 

5,0; 

1, 

»; 

o, 

o; 

2,  5; 

o, 

i; 

0,  1 

;  3,5;  0,1; 

5,1; 

2 

5; 

1, 

i; 

5,  5; 

1, 

i; 

12,  3 

;  3,5;  2,5; 

4,i; 

2, 

5; 

2, 

4; 

4,  ? ; 

1, 

i; 

3,  5 

;  2,5;  1,1; 

0,3; 

1, 

5; 

2, 

4; 

i,  i; 

5, 

0; 

4,  0 

;  2,5;  3,4; 

0,1; 

2,10; 

1, 

3; 

2,  4; 

3, 

i; 

2,12 

;  1,4;  3,2. 

Further 

answers  were: 

80 

,40 

;  50, 

10;  10,25; 

20, 

15; 

25 

,50; 

10,20; 

20 

,20 

;  75, 

20;  10,25; 

10, 

10; 

25 

,50; 

60,  40; 

10 

,  25 

;  5, 

20;  18,25; 

15, 

25; 

10 

,15. 

To  the  first  question  the  general  average  is 
between  3  and  7. 

To  the  second  question  the  general  average 
is  between  4  and  7. 

Accompanying  some  answers  were  found  the 
statements : 

In  the  district  in  which  I  teach  the  boys  go  into 
the  factories,  girls  take  business  courses.  Few  go 
to  high  school.  Most  of  those  who  have  their  minds 
made  up  are  among  the  ones  favored  by  wealth 
and  position. 

I  shall  next  add  a  letter  of  Mr.  Edwin  L. 
Shuey,  of  Dayton,  Ohio,  who  has  had  much 
experience  in  a  college  faculty  as  well  as  in  a 
large  factory: 

Answering  your  questions  in  a  somewhat  indi¬ 
rect  way,  I  may  say  that  before  advising  any  boy 
regarding  his  course  of  study,  it  would  seem  neces¬ 
sary  to  me  to  know  the  boy.  Of  course  this  ought 
to  be  the  duty  of  the  parents,  but  unfortunately 
nine  tenths  of  the  parents  are  incompetent  to  ad¬ 
vise  their  own  boys.  Every  school  principal,  there¬ 
fore  (in  district  schools),  should  have  some  ability 
for  giving  this  advice.  Every  high  school  should 
have  one  or  two  men  prepared  by  training  and  ex- 


6 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


perience  to  be  advisers  to  the  boys  who  enter  the 
school,  regarding  work  to  be  undertaken.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  during  the  first  two  years  of  high- 
school  life  the  majority  of  boys  probably  have  no 
idea  regarding  their  own  particular  ability  or  the 
vocation  which  they  propose  to  follow.  School 
advisers  are  therefore  important  not  only  for  the 
beginners,  but  for  the  young  men  who  are  enter¬ 
ing  the  higher  classes  of  high  school. 

My  own  belief  is  that  the  first  years  of  a  high- 
school  course  particularly  should  give  a  general 
knowledge  of  a  number  of  subjects,  even  though 
that  knowledge  be  not  as  thorough  as  specialists 
would  desire.  Also  in  the  curriculum  certain  sub¬ 
jects  may  be  taken  regarding  which  the  boy  should 
have  thorough  knowledge. 

It  seems  to  me  that  at  present  in  the  minds  of 
many  parents,  and  probably  teachers  as  well,  too 
much  emphasis  is  placed  on  preparing  the  boy  to 
earn  a  livelihood  and  not  enough  upon  preparing 
him  for  citizenship.  Good  citizenship  means  a 
knowledge  of  history,  general  as  well  as  American, 
and  a  training  in  ability  to  think,  analyze  and 
make  proper  conclusions.  There  is  too  much  in¬ 
clination  to  specialize  from  the  beginning  of  the 
high-school  course,  rather  than  to  lay  a  good 
foundation  of  broad  knowledge  to  be  followed  by 
the  specialization. 

If  I  may  draw  my  conclusions  from  quite  a  little 
experience  with  young  men  in  office  and  factory, 
as  well  as  in  professions,  I  would  say  that  the 
high-school  course  should  include  something  of  the 
classics  and  the  essentials  of  mathematics  as  well 
as  history,  rhetoric  and  logic.  A  study  of  language 
seems  to  me  particularly  important,  not  so  much 
for  the  direct  use  of  the  language  in  after  life  as 
for  the  training  which  a  proper  teaching  of  lan¬ 
guage  is  sure  to  give.  The  usual  high-school 
mathematics  it  seems  to  me  should  be  required  of 
all  students,  even  though  they  may  not  have  special 
ability  for  the  higher  forms  of  the  study. 

It  may  be  inserted  here  parenthetically  that 
Dean  Herman  Schneider,  of  the  engineering 
college  of  the  University  of  Cincinnati,  de¬ 
vised  a  plan  of  engineering  education,  which 
for  lack  of  a  better  name  he  has  called  the  co¬ 
operative  system.  The  plan  provides  alternat¬ 
ing  bi-weekly  periods  of  scholastic  work  and 
practical  engineering  work  in  shop,  foundry, 
railway  construction,  etc.  The  system  might 
more  accurately  be  termed  a  coordinated 
system. 

Dean  Schneider’s  task  would  be  greatly 


simplified,  if  some  means  could  be  devised  to 
discover  the  natural  bent  of  each  student  who 
enters  his  college.  In  order  to  ascertain  if 
this  could  be  done  by  psychological  methods  he 
induced  Professor  Breese,  of  the  department  of 
psychology,  to  inaugurate  a  series  of  tests  of 
engineering  students  of  known  abilities.  These 
tests  were  among  those  found  in  the  usual  psy¬ 
chological  categories.  After  three  years  of 
experimental  work  neither  Dr.  Breese  nor  Dean 
Schneider  has  been  able  as  yet  to  find  any  cor¬ 
relation  between  the  psychological  results  and 
the  known  abilities. 

In  a  lecture  “  The  Problem  of  Selecting  the 
Bight  Job”  (published  June  9,  1915,  by  the 
National  Association  of  Corporation  Schools) 
Dean  Schneider  said  (see  p.  7  of  that  lecture)  : 

The  conclusions  to  which  our  analyses  and  ex¬ 
periments  have  forced  us  are  the  following: 

1.  The  psychologists’  definitions  do  not  define 
and  the  tests  are  merely  further  restricted  defini¬ 
tions  of  the  definitions. 

2.  The  methods  do  not  appear  to  be  scientific  in 
that  too  many  indeterminate  variables  enter  into 
the  results. 

3.  The  psychologists  of  the  school  advocating 
direct  vocational  guidance  by  restricted  psycho¬ 
logical  tests  of  short  duration  have  not  yet  proven 
their  proposition.  They  have  merely  asserted  it. 
The  burden  of  proof  rests  on  the  psychologists  pro¬ 
posing  the  method.  It  does  not  rest  on  any  one 
to  prove  they  can  not  do  it.  So  far,  they  have  not 
established  their  case. 

4.  Our  psychologists  have  not  yet  discovered  a 
correlation  between  the  results  of  the  tests  on  our 
cooperative  students  and  the  abilities  they  have  so 
far  established;  those  of  us  who  are  not  psychol¬ 
ogists  but  who  have  studied  the  tests  used  have 
failed  to  find  any  connection  after  a  diligent  in¬ 
vestigation. 

On  page  15  of  this  lecture  Dean  Schneider 
said  in  his  general  conclusion: 

There  is  a  movement  in  the  country  for  direct 
vocational  guidance  in  public  school  systems  which 
has  the  endorsement  of  some  public  school  superin¬ 
tendents.  We  believe  for  the  reasons  given  in  this 
memorandum  that  this  movement  possesses  ele¬ 
ments  of  danger  for  the  very  simple  and  signifi¬ 
cant  reason  that  not  enough  is  known  to  warrant 
any  man  in  saying  to  a  child,  “This  is  your  job, 
and  that  is  not  your  job.”  We  are  convinced  that 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


7 


the  few  experimental  psychologists  who  propose  the 
use  of  their  science  in  direct  vocational  guidance 
should  frankly  confess  that  the  limitations  of  their 
science  should  warn  against  its  use  at  present  for 
such  purposes. 

I  may  next  add  a  letter  of  another  very 
eminent  surgeon,  Dr.  Joseph  Kansohoff,  of 
Cincinnati : 

If  I  have  refrained  from  answering  your  letter 
before  this,  it  was  because  I  wanted  to  give  the 
subject  the  attention  its  importance  calls  for. 

I  do  not  question  now  but  that  in  a  high-school 
course  the  average  boy  should  have  a  general 
course,  requiring  some  classics,  mathematics,  at 
least  plane  geometry  and  one  modern  language. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  the  course  in  English 
should  be  as  thorough  as  time  will  permit. 

My  reasons  for  preferring  the  course  indicated 
(No.  4)  are  the  following: 

First,  up  to  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  year,  the 
average  boy  who  goes  to  a  high  school  can  have 
no  idea  as  to  the  work  he  expects  to  follow  later 
in  life. 

Second,  a  general  course  of  the  kind  indicated 
will  give  the  boy  a  general  knowledge  which  will 
later  permit  him  to  develop  along  certain  lines,  as 
his  bent  or  necessity  may  indicate. 

Third,  such  a  course  makes  the  possibiity  at  least 
of  a  general  “culture,”  which  will  permit  him  to 
indulge  in  one  or  other  intellectual  hobby  later  in 
life. 

« 

I  would  above  all  things  not  exclude  mathe¬ 
matics,  but  make  it  compulsory  in  every  high- 
school  curriculum,  because  it  is  after  all  the  only 
study  which  will  inculcate  into  the  young  mind 
that  absolute  precision  is  among  the  human  possi¬ 
bilities. 

The  Hon.  Charles  Theodore  Greve,  of  the 
Cincinnati  Law  School,  writes : 

A  thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  studies  is  most 
important;  this  should  be  accompanied  by  a  gen¬ 
eral  knowledge  of  many  to  the  extent  that  this 
does  not  sacrifice  the  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
few. 

History,  valuable  as  it  is  as  a  training,  is  not 
comparable  to  mathematics  or  classics. 

I  have  specialized  in  history  and  economics,  but 
they  can  never  take  the  place  of  classics  or  mathe¬ 
matics.  Both  are  essential  and  there  are  no  pos¬ 
sible  substitutes  for  either. 

An  experience  of  many  years  of  study  and  teach¬ 
ing  young  men  has  confirmed  my  belief  in  these 


two1  subjects  as  the  essential  ground  work  of  any 
education  that  is  to  be  of  value  for  any  subsequent 
career  either  professional,  scientific,  business  or 
mechanical. 

Finally  I  insert  a  letter  from  the  Hon. 
Roscoe  Pound  of  the  Harvard  Law  School: 

I  am  returning  herein  the  blank  questionnaire 
upon  which  I  have  indicated  my  views. 

I  believe  I  may  speak  upon  this  matter  without 
any  particular  prejudice,  since  my  own  training 
in  college  was  largely  scientific  and  I  have  since 
worked  along  lines  as  diverse  as  botany  and  the 
law.  From  experience  as  a  practising  lawyer  and 
as  a  teacher  and  from  reflection  I  feel  confident 
that  American  education  is  entirely  upon  the  wrong 
track  in  endeavoring  to  impart  information  about 
everything.  Those  professional  schools  conspicu¬ 
ously  do  the  best  work  which  make  no  attempt  to 
carry  a  student  over  the  whole  field  of  knowledge 
involved  in  his  profession,  but  instead  train  him 
intensively  in  a  relatively  narrow  field.  Again,  the 
highest  type  of  American  scholar  has  been  the  re¬ 
sult  almost  uniformly  of  what  would  to-day  be  re¬ 
garded  as  a  very  narrow  preliminary  training  fol¬ 
lowed  by  self -teaching  in  the  scholar’s  chosen  field. 
Look,  for  instance,  at  the  great  engineers  of  a 
generation  ago  who  came  forth  from  the  utterly 
narrow  instruction  at  West  Point  as  we  should  now 
deem  it. 

The  two  things  which  appear  to  me  to  be  re¬ 
quired  of  secondary  education  are,  first,  such  lin¬ 
guistic  training  as  to  give  the  student  a  real  con¬ 
trol  over  language,  which  is  the  instrument  of 
thought;  and  second,  some  sort  of  training  which 
will  form  settled  mental  habits  of  accuracy  and 
thoroughness  during  the  student’s  formative 
period.  I  believe  mathematics  will  achieve  the 
latter  result  as  nothing  else  may.  Personally  I 
never  liked  mathematics  and  worked  at  my  mathe¬ 
matical  studies  simply  because  I  had  to.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  am  sure  that  even  under  such  cir¬ 
cumstances  they  were  of  very  high  value  to  me 
not  because  I  have  ever  remembered  any  thing 
which  I  ever  learned,  but  because  I  was  compelled 
to  see  to  it  that  two  and  two  make  four  instead 
of  presenting  plausible  arguments  for  the  position 
that  they  might  make  five.  Probably  study  of  any 
foreign  language  helps  to  give  that  grasp  of  lan¬ 
guage  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  thorough¬ 
going  thought.  But  I  suspect  that  Latin  par¬ 
ticularly  is  the  language  which  should  be  used  for 
that  purpose. 

I  do  not  feel  competent  to  suggest  what  the  other 
studies  should  be  and  should  be  willing  to  make 


8 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


many  concessions  as  to  the  rest  of  the  curriculum. 
What  seems  to  me  most  important  is  that  what¬ 
ever  else  is  done  for  the  student  he  is  compelled  to 
think  critically,  to  express  himself  accurately  and 
to  form  habits  of  doing  things  thoroughly  rather 
than  plausibly.  I  do  not  believe  that  premature 
courses  in  economics  and  social  science,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  given  to  high-school  students  conduce  to 
these  things. 

In  conclusion  I  may  add  what  the  Rev. 
Charles  F.  Aked,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  San  Fran¬ 
cisco,  writes: 

As  I  choose  most  emphatically  the  course  No.  4, 


I  should  like  to  be  allowed  to  add  that  I  am  op¬ 
posed  to  the  facilities  for  choice  granted  by  so 
many  optional  courses  to  pupils  of  the  high-school 
stage.  I  dislike  the  very  idea  of  choice  until  a 
later  stage.  If  a  boy  manifests  a  strong  indispo¬ 
sition  to  a  particular  study  and  seems  to  mani¬ 
fest  also  inability  for  that  study,  I  should  say 
that  this  is  the  particular  study  to  which  he  must 
apply  himself.  I  have  no  desire  to  shut  him  out 
from  the  studies  he  loves;  but  until  he  is  well  on 
with  his  university  course  I  have  a  very  strong 
desire  to  shut  him  in  to  the  studies  he  hates. 

Harris  Hancock 

University  of  Cincinnati 


29 


Mswepsl 

OF  THE^EESIDEHTS^ 

OF  0 INC INN 

a  *“n  -r 

Ax  1 

BUSINESS  MEN 

.Vi-- 

Course 

A 

B 

John  Allen 

Ho .  4 

Yes 

No 

Thomas  W,  Allen 

No  a  2 

Yes 

Wm .  H .  Alms 

No.  2 

Yes 

No 

Wm.  F .  Anderson 

No  <,  2 

Yes 

L.  A.  Ault 

No.  2 

Yes 

James  Bui look 

No  .  2 

Yres 

No 

John  A a  Church 

No.  4 

Yes 

Louis  J.  Dauner 

No.  4 

T •  J.  Davis 

No  a  2 

Yes 

Mrs  .  Harry  Dunham 

No »  2 

Yes 

No 

Edward  S .  Ebbert. 

No.  2 

Yes 

E .  W •  Edwards 

No.  2  or  4 

Yes 

Thomas  P.  Egan 

No.  4  or  2 

Yes 

Franklin  T.  Ellis 

No.  4 

G-eorge  Eustis 

No.  4 

No 

Yes 

John  C.  Gallagher 

No.  2 

Fred  A.  Geier 

N  o .  4 

No 

Yes 

Edwin  Go shorn 

No .  2 

James  A.  Green 

No.  4 

Wm .  Cu ckenb e  r g  e  r 

No.  4 

Y'es 

Geo.  V/.  Harris 

No.  2 

No  • 

Yes 

C.  L.  Harrison 

No .  2 

Yes  for  th< 

average  bo; 

J  ame s  C .  H  ob  ar  t 

No .  2 

N  .  D.  C*  Hodges 

No.  4 

H.  H .  Hoffman 

No.  4 

No 

Yes 

2220 


( 


•'r:i  c  ..  \  ... 

• 

. 

* 

. 

■1 

» 

• 

t 

•  H 

•  H 

30 


Henry  Hunt 
R .  Fo  Johnston 
R.  K.  La  Blond 
Ohas *  Jc  Livingood 
A.  MoLean 
Wm.  B.  Melish 
T.  C.  Powell 
Victor  Price 
Geo.  Puchta 
\7  o  F  *  Roberts  on 
J  ohn  Shuf f 

J  ohn  V .  S  t  eph ens 
K.  W.  Strobridge 
Walter  J.  Wichgar 
Chas .  Windisch 

H.  0.  Yeiser 


BUSINESS  MBIT 

Course 
No.  4 
No.  2 
No.  2 
No.  4 
No .  4 
N  o  •  1 
No.  4 
No «  4 
No.  4 
No  .  4 
No.  2 

No.  4 

V 

No.  4 
No.  1 

No.  1  or  4 

No.  2 


(Cont . ' . 

t 

A 

No 

No 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

No 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

Yes  with  few 
exceptions 

Yes 

No 

Yes  in 
high  school 

No 


THEOLOGIANS 


Course 

A 

H .  Crane 

No.  2  or  4 

Yes 

F .  K .  Farr 

No.  4 

Yes 

Levi  Gilbert 

— I 

o 

* 

M 

Yes 

Charles  F.  Goss 

No.  4 

Yes 

John  F«  Herget 

No .  4 

No 

Jacob  W.  Kapp 

No .  2  or  4 

2220 

No 

B 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

Yes  occasional¬ 
ly  but  not  often 

Yes 

Yes  in 
college 

Yes 

B 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

Yes 


* 

*  'I 

•  • 

\  • 

. 


, 

n 


. 


•  .  I 


► 

THEOLOGIANS  (Cont‘ 

). 

.  i 
a 

Course 

A 

B 

F.  M.  MacMillan 

N  o .  4 

Yes 

Yes 

Edward  Mac  It 

No .  4 

Yes 

Charles  L.  Neibel 

No.  2 

No 

Yes 

F r  ank  II.  Nelson 

No.  4 

No 

Yes 

David  Philipson 

No.  4 

No 

Yes 

Charles  G.  Reade 

No.  4 

Yes 

Silby  Vance 

No.  2 

Yes 

Yes 

Boyd  Vincent 

No.  1,2  or  3 

Yes  • 

Yes 

E.  P.  Whallon 

No  .  4 

Yes 

Yes 

LAWYERS 

Messrs  . 

Course 

A 

B 

Alfred  Bo  Benedict 

No.  2 

No 

Yes 

John  E.  Bruce 

No .  4 

Yes 

Richard  Ernst 

No.  4 

John  Galvin 

No.  4 

Yes 

Charles  Theodore  Greve 

No.  4 

Yes 

Yes 

L  o  J„  Hackney 

No.  4 

No 

Yes 

Thornton  Mi  Hinkle 

r 

• 

o 

Y-jr 

Yes 

Yes 

George  Koadley 

No.  2  or  4 

No 

Yes 

Harry  M.  Hoffheimer 

No.  2 

No 

Yes 

Charles  J.  Hunt 

No.  4 

# 

Ferdinand  Jslke 

S ime  on  M .  J  ohns on 

No.  4 

Yes 

Malcolm  McAvoy 

No  .  4 

No 

Yes 

W.  H*  Mackey 

No.  2  or  4 

No 

Yes 

Stanley  Matthews 

No.  4 

2220 

Yes 

Yes 

/ 


•  1 


.. 


.  I  ' 


V  .. 


( 


LAWYERS  (Oont '  ) 


s,C> 

Cj 


Messrs  . 

Course 

A  A 

B 

Max^B .  Mav 

V 

No.  4 

Yes 

Albert  Morrill 

No.  4 

Yes'  for  the 
average  high 
school  boy. 

Yes  for  the 
University- 
student  . 

Jo  W «  Peel: 

No .  2 

Yes 

Robt «  C.  Pugh 

No.  4 

Yes 

No 

C •  D.  Robertson 

No.  2  or 

4 

No 

Yes 

W.  P.  Rogers 

No.  2 

Mur  ray  S  e  a  s  ong  o  o  d 

No.  4 

No 

Yes 

Dudley  V.  Sutphin 

No.  4 

9 

No  ’ 

Yes 

Oh  as  .  B.  Wilby  . 

No.  4 

No 

% 

Yes 

Do  D .  .Wo odmans e e 

No.  2 

No 

Yes 

W «  Worthington 

No.  4 

Yes 

No 

PHYSICIANS 

Course 

A 

»  B 

San  Allen 

No.  2 

No 

lres 

Eduard  R.  Ealdwin 

No.  2  or 

4 

No 

Yes 

0.  L.  Bonifield 

No.  4 

No 

« 

Yes 

A*  C.  Baohmeyer 

No.  2,4 

Yes 

Ar  ch .  I  *  C  ar  s  on 

Elective 

No 

Yes 

Harry  Dunham 

No .  2 

No 

Yes 

J.  H •  Eichberg 

Elective 

No 

Yes 

Dr.  Grieve 

No.  4 

Yes 

C.  R.  Holmes 

No .  2 

Yes 

Yes 

Oliver  P.  Holt 

o 

o 

fs; 

lres 

Samuel  Iglauer 

No  •  2 

No 

Yes 

•  2220 


‘ 


■ 


i 


. 


' 


. 


>•  .7 


• 

■ 

• 

. 

' 

• 

' 

• 

. 

■ 


•"»  *  k 


F.  W.  Lang don 

Eo  W.  Mitchell 
Wm.  Dc  Porter 
Bo  K«  Rachford 
Dr.  Hans oho ff 
Robert  W.  Stevrart 


PHY 

o  “*  r:  T  A  i"*1  /  <-t 

b-L^liLhib  1,0 

Gilt  ' 

V 

;  • 

33 

Course 

A 

B 

A .  0  « 

2 

Yes 

as  an  aid 

No  rather  th 

to 

expansion . 

contraction . 

No . 

2 

No 

Yes 

No . 

4 

Yes 

Yes 

No . 

2 

No. 

4 

Yes 

No 

No . 

4 

No 

Yres 

MIS 

CELLANECUS 

No  IT ar.es  Signed 


Course 

A 

B 

No.  4 

Yes 

No 

No.  2 

Yes 

No.  2 

No .  2 

No 

Y'es 

No .  2 

No 

Yes 

No.  1 

No 

Yes 

2220 


♦  - 


«Vi  ?  '* 


34 


V/ith  tho  addition  of  tlie  names  of  the  Cincinnatians  the 
above  is  found  in  School  and  Society,  loo .  cit. 

Other  letters  and  comments  follow.  These  were  for  the  most 
part  jotted  down  in  the  spaces  left  blank  in  my  questionnaire. 


NOT- ‘'RESIDENTS  OF  CINCINNATI . 
BUSINESS  MEN 


Mr.  Louis  Annin  Ames  chooses  No.  2  and  wishes  to  see  History 
substituted  for  the  Classics* 

WI  believe  a  thorough  knowledge  of  fundamental  subjects 
and  a  general  knowledge  of  the  classics  is  best,  for  then 
you  have  the  ground-work  for  a  superstructure  for  any  polish 
or  finish  in  the  Arts,  Sciences,  and  Literature." 


Mr.  Frank  B.  Anderson  prefers  No.  2  with  History  and  English. 

”1  believe  that  a  student  in  gaining  a  thorough  knowl¬ 
edge  of  a  few  subjects  will  have  acquired  a  habit  of  study 
and  application  which  will,  as  time  goes  on,  make  It  easy 
for  him  to  pick  up  a  general  knowledge  of  such  other  sub¬ 
jects  as  are  necessary  to  aid  him  in  rounding  out  his  life.” 


Hr.  V/.  K.  Bi::by: 

"A  child  or  man  must  know  mathematics  and  especially' 
arithmetic.  VJe  have  had  too  much  of  passing  over  arithmetic 
and  getting  into  algebra  and  geometry.  Arithmetic  should 
follow  geometry.  The  pupil  should  not  be  graduated  with  a 
smattering  of  it  obtained  in  his  grammar-grade  and  first 
year  of  high  school.  The  classics  are  desirable,  but  the 
"three  E’s”  should  have  more  attention  than  in  the  past. 
History  is  important;  Grammar  and  English  Literature  very 
important.,  A  thorough  knowledge  of  the  essentials  is  far 
more  important  than  skimming  over  a  wider  range.  If  the 
pupil  has  the  inclination  he  will  get  tho  wider  range  after 
graduation  and  if  he  has  not  the  inclination  the  skimming 
over  a  wide  range  will  be  barren  of  results.” 


2220 


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Mr.  Josl  W.  Burdick: 


" I  prefer  course  No.  4  with,  the  addition  of  one  modern 
language  (optional)  and  instruction  in  literary  construction. 
This  I  consider  of  great  importance  from  a  practical  point  of 
view.  Also  the  habit  of  oral  expression  should  be  acquired, 
and  I  believe  a  department  devoted  to  instruction  in  oral 
expression  should  be  a  part  of  the  curriculum  of  every  high 
school.  The  ability  to  present  a  clear  and  logical  oral 
statement  is  most  useful  in  every  walk  of  life.” 

Second  question.  Yes;  "Qualified  with  such  general 
knowledge  of  other  subjects  as  the  capacity  of  the  student 
to  receive.  If  he  has  the  ability  to  learn  a  few  things 
thoroughly,  his  general  knowledge  should  expand  automatical¬ 
ly.  I  would  incline  to  a  substitution  of  modern  languages 
for  the  classics  according  to  the  bent  of  the  individual 
student . 


Mr.  Chas.  Oalwells 

Question  (A)  (Not  too  large  a  number  of  subjects). 
Question  (B)  (A  thorough  knowledge  of  practical  branches). 
General  knowledge  of  advertising; 


Mr.  Benj.  Carpenter  suggests  either  No0  2  or  No.  4. 

"American  Political  History,  French,  German  or  Spanish 
should  be  required,  if  the  classics  (Latin  and  Greek)  are 
omitted.  English  should  ne  required  both  spoken  and  written. 

My  experience  as  a  merchant  makes  me  put  special  empha¬ 
sis  on  good  English  -  well  expressed  and  well  written.  The 
penmanship  of  our  high  school  boys  is  awful. 

In  a  high  school  course  a  good  general-  knowledge  of  a 
number  of  subjects  is  preferable." 


Mr.  Win.  L.  Clause  desires  an  elective  course. 

Question  (A)  Yes,  provided  the  course  is  elective. 

"If  the  high  school  student  has  a  real  taste  for  knowl¬ 
edge,  he  w;  LI  pursue  his  studies  through  life  along  those 
lines  in  which  he  is  interested. " 


Mr*  Chas  Flint  prefers  No.  50 

"The  most  important  study  is  the  study  of  the  English 
language  and  therefore  the  classics  should  be  required*" 

2220 


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Mr*  Janes  B.  Forgan,  Pres’t.  First  National  Bank,  Chicago: 

"I  am  inclined  to  favor  No.  4  believing  that  both  the 
classics  and  mathematics  should  form  part  of  the  boy’s  course 
in  high  school.  I  feel,  however,  that  my  opinion  carries 
little  weight  as  I  have  never  been  in  sufficiently  close 
touch  with  educational  matters  to  enable  me  to  form  an  accu¬ 
rate  or  very  positive  opinion.  I  presume  that  boys  are  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  sufficiently  grounded  in  the  "three  H’s"  before 
they  enter  high-school,  but  my  experience  is  that,  if  this 
is  so,  during  their  high  school  term  they  must  forget  a  good 
deal  of  what  they  previously  learned.  1  would  like  to  see 
high-school  graduates  better  grounded  in  their  elementary 
education  and  able  to  write  legibly,  spell  correctly  and  be 
more  accurate  and  expert  in  simple  arithmetical  problems." 


Win.  H.  Gardner  chooses  Noo  1. 

"The  boy  can  later  make  choice  according  to  his  plans 
for  the  future • " 


Mr*  J.  J.  Glessner  prefers  No.  4. 

"Capacity  of  individual  students  and  conditions  make 
options  desirable,  but  this  is  not  safe  without  good  advice." 


Mr.  Walker  D.  Hines,  Chairman  Exec.  Com.  of  tho  A.  T.  and 

S  •  F .  R .  R . : 


"It  is  more  satisfactory  to  answer  by  letter  than  by 
filling  the  blanks  in  the  form  you  sent  me.  In  my  judgment, 

I  would  advise  a  boy  in  a  high  school  to  take  a  course  where 
mathematics,  to  the  extent  at  least  of  the  elements  of  alge¬ 
bra,  geometry  and  trigonometry,  is  required  and  where  the 
chassios  are  optional.  My  reason  for  this  view  is  that  un¬ 
less  a  boy  gets  the  elements  of  these  three  mathematical 
studies  at  school,  he  will  never  get  them  at  all,  and  there¬ 
fore  will  never  have  a  basis  for  any  business  involving 
knowledge  of  those  studies.  I  do  not  think  these  considera¬ 
tions  apply  to  the  classics. 

You  make  the  further  inquiry  as  to  whether  I  believe  in 
a  genera,!  thorough  knowledge  of  a  great  number  of  subjects 
or  in  a  thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  subjects.  I  construe 
this  inquiry  to  be  confined  to  the  knowledge  to  be  imparted 
or  developed  in  the  high  school.  My  judgment  is  that  it  is 

preferable  to  give  the  pupils  a  good  working  knowledge  of 

ooon 


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a  f ©17  fundamentals.  Among  these  fundamentals  I  class  the 
three  mathematical  studies  above  mentioned;  also  physics; 
also  at  least  one  foreign  language.  Of  course,  there  are 
others,  but  the  ones  I  have  mentioned  appeal  most  strongly 
to  me  as  important  bases  for  general  culture. 

I  seriously  doubt  the  wisdom  or  the  policy  of  including 
courses  in  a  great  variety  of  subjects  which  are  not  necessa¬ 
rily  fundamental.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  one  great  evil  to 
be  avoided  is  the  evil  of  lack  of  thoroughness.  If  the  pupils 
are  given  a  smattering  of  a  great  variety  of  subjects,  I  am 
disposed  to  assume  that  the  result  will  be  that  the  natural 
disposition  toward  lack  of  thoroughness  will  be  encouraged. 

I  strongly  believe  that  a  thorough  working  knowledge  of  a 
few  basic  studies  will  furnish  a  much  better  equipment  for 
business  or  for  the  pursuit  of  culture  than  the  more  ambi¬ 
tious  and  necessarily  less  thorough  policy  of  instruction  in 
a  great  variety  of  subjects.” 


■— <  •— «  —  r—  MP»>  «  m-  «  »— »  k-.  • 


Mr*  Henry  Holt  prefers  Ho.  4: 

"The  classics  should  be  taught  with  only  enough  of  the 
languages  to  trace  etymologies  and  carry  the  standard  quota¬ 
tions;  mathematics  through  trigonometry;  history  as  instruc¬ 
tion  in  politics,  if  textbooks  can  be  had;  and  economics  and 
taxation;  if  any  time  is  left,  French  and  German,  perhaps 
Spanish  in  view  of  Mexico  and  Cuba." 

Question  (A)  Yes.  "He  will  select  his  own  specialties 
later,  if  he  has  the  head  for  any." 


Mr.  Jo  Krutt schmitt  chairman  Exec..  Com.  of  South,  Pacific 
RoR.:  advises  No.  2,  "because  of  training  the  reasoning  powers 
by  study  of  mathematics/’. 

Question  (B)  Yes;  "but  a  boy  should  try  to  acquire  a 
general  knowledge  of  a  great  number  in  addition,  but  not  by 
sacrificing  first  requirements." 


Mr o  Andr  e w  Ma c  L  e i sh : 

"1  would  recommend  No.  4  and  also  include  History.  To 
me  it  seems  questionable  whether  (unless  in  very  exceptional 
cases)  the  boy  should  be  permitted  the  exercise  of  much  choice 
independent  of  the  instructor." 


2220 


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Mr.  Joshua  B.  Lippincott  chooses  No.  4  and  in  addition  Phvs- 

ics,  History  and  English  Grammar « 

Question  (A)  "It  depends  upon  what  the  scholar  intends 
to  do  for  a  living;  for  the  future  "business  man,  a  gei^eral 
knowledge  of  a  number  (not  a  great  number)  of  subjects.” 


Mr •  M.  L.  Milligan  prefers  No.  4: 

"These  lopsided  fellows  who  know  nothing  outside  of 
their  specialties  make  very  unprofitable  citizens." 


Mr.  Effingham  B.  Morris,  Presd.  Girard  Trust  Co.: 

"The  answer  to  your  question  would  seem  to  me  somewhat 
dependent  upon  what  the  bo^  intends  to  do  after  leaving  school 

If  he  goes  to  college,  a  school  course  might  embrace 
Latin,  Greek,  History,  Mathematics,  and  a  modern  language. 

If  he  is  obliged  to  go  direct  from  school  into  mercan¬ 
tile  business,  then:  Latin,  History,  Mathematics,  and  Span¬ 
ish  or  French* 

'  If  he  goes  from  school  into  a  shop  or  any  technical 
trade,  then:  Latin,  Mathematics,  History,  and  German  or 
French. 

Thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  subjects  as  a  foundation 
would  seem  preferable  to  a  smattering  of  many.  If  the  boy 
desires  further  study,  he  can  find  opportunity  after  leaving 
school . " 


Mr.  Chas.  A.  Otis  chooses  No.  4,  and  remarks  that 

"A  boy  should  have  a  good  general  knowledge  to  prepare 
him  for  his  special  courses  later." 

hr.  Frederick  J.  Faxon: 

"Number' 4  appears  more  definite  and  cultural  and  hence 
is  my  choice." 


hr.  Seward  Prosser  emphasizes  No.  4,  with  English,  Litera¬ 
ture  and  Letter  Writing. 

Question  (B )  No,  "broaden  out  in  the  early  oducation 
and  specialize  afterwards." 

2220 


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. 


Mr.  Blanchard  Randall  suggests  No«  4  -  for  two  years 

"to  he  followed  by  modern  languages  and  history  into 
college  o " 


Hr.  Wm«  A.  Robinson: 

"I  recommend  this  course  (No.  2)  taking  it  for  granted 
of  course  that  the  ordinary  English  branches  would  be  in¬ 
cluded  .  An  intelligent  boy  would  naturally  take  up  Classics 
later,  after  a  good  start  in  active  business  life/' 


Mr.  F.  Wo  Scott  prefers  No.  4  as  first  choice  and  No.  2  as 
second  choice. 

"In  addition,  English  Literature,  History  -  especially 
American  History." 

Question  (A),  Yes.  "It  is  possible  that  exceptions 
to  this  should  be  made  in  cases  of  students  intending  to 
enter  certain  professions." 


Mr.  A.  L.  Shapleigh: 

"For  an  education  for  business  he  prefers  No.  2  with 

history,  geography  (commercial),  spelling  and  penmanship." 

/ 


Mr.  Edwin  L.  Shuey: 

"In  general  I  believe  this  (No.  4)  to  be  the  best  course 
for  the  great  majority  of  boys.  Perhaps  the  classics  might 
be  omitted  in  the  fourth  year  by  those  who  seem  to  have 
little  or  no  inclination  to  become  proficient  in  languages," 

See  his  letter  printed  on  page  5  of  insert. 


Mr.  Judd  Stewart: 

"In  my  opinion  mathematics  should  be  in  all  coursos 
a  required  study  and  classics  optional." 


2220 


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40 


Mr,  C.  P,  Walbridge  prefers  Ho.  2,  history  required,  and 
other  studies  optional. 


Mr,  Morris  Whitridge  recommends  Ho,  4  with  some  history, 
always  requiring  mathematics, 

w I  am  a  business  man  but  my  classics  has  been  a  help 
to  me  from  an  aesthetic  point  of  view,  while  my  mathematics 
trained  my  mind  and  mahes  me  decide  accurately  when  a  prompt 
decision  is  necessary  in  these  days  of  high  tension  in  busi¬ 
ness.  I  am  a,  strong  believer  in  Greek,  Latin,  Mathematics 
.  and  the  old  fashioned  method  of  education,  Me  have  too  many 
frills  these  days.” 


Mr*  Daniel  Willard,  Presd.  B  and  0,  R.  R. i 

,fI  would  prefer  a  course  in  mathematics  and  history 
rather  than  any  other  combinations  suggested. 

In  the  lower  schools,  and  possibly  up  to  and  including 
the  high  school,  I  should  favor  a  general  knowledge  of  a 
number  of  subjects;  later  on,  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of 
a  few  subjects.” 


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Rev.  Ciias •  P.  Aked  prefers  No*  4  " 


ithout  hesitation” . 


"As  the  ideal  contemplated  by  an  educational  course 
snould  ce  to  know  ’ something  about  everything  and  every¬ 
thing  about  something’ ,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  hiyh  school 
course  might  very  well  turn  its  attention  to  the  first  half 
of  it,  namely:  ’something  about  everything.’  It  is  mani¬ 
festly  impossible  for  a  pupil  in  a  high  school  to  special¬ 
ize  in  any  effective  way. 


Rev.  C.  F.  Anderson  chooses  No.  4  including  history. 

Question  (A),  Yes;  "a  foundation  in  high  school  with 
optional  subjects  for  college." 


Rev.  L.  W.  Batten  recommends  No.  2  with  natural  sciences 
and  history. 


Rev.  ¥.  Co  Bitting  advises  No.  4  or  No.  2. 

"In  answer  to  your  inquiry  which  came  this  morning,  my 
personal  advice  to  a  boy  would  be  to  take  the  course  No.  4 
indicated  in  your  questionnaire. 

Next  to  that  I  should  advise  Course  No.  2. 

I  do  not  think  that  the  same  course  could  reasonably 
be  required  for  every  High  School  pupil.  It  would  depend 
upon  the  pupil  altogether. 

The  culture  of  the  analytic  and  logical  faculties 
should  be  made,  where  these  are  deficient,  by  insisting  upon 
mathematics • 

Likewise  I  should  insist  upon  the  use  of  the  classics 
where  these  will  meet  the  deficiencies  of  the  pupils. 

The  difficulty  about  a  general  knowledge  of  a  great 
many  topics  is  that  it  is  hard  to  obtain  and  when  an  effort 
is  sought  to  secure  it  the  results  are  not  only  meager,  but 
also  are  apt  to  lead  the  puoil  to  substitute  superficiality 

i.  X  J.  X  t/ 

for  thoroughness. 

I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  such  thing  as  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  subjects.  There  is  of  course 
more  or  less  intelligent  acquaintance  with  a  few  topics,  but 
this  is  by  no  means  thorough,  and  we  should  not  allow  pupils 
to  get  the  idea  that  they  are  masters  in  any  department  of 
knowledge.  Every  real  student  is  an  eternal  disciple." 

The  last  remark  of  the  learned  theologian  applies  in  partic¬ 


ular  to  every  teacher. 


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42 


Rev.  George  Hodges: 

:'The  thorough  knowledge  of  the  few  belongs  to  the  tech 
nical  or  professional  school,  on  the  broad  foundation  laid 
by  previous  general  study." 


Bishop  Edwin  D,  Hughes: 

*None  of  the  options  quite  cover  my  own  idea.  I  be¬ 
lieve  in  encouraging  Ho.  4,  but  would  allow  for  exceptions, 

I  believe  in  a  general  knowledge  of  a  number  of  subjects 
and  in  a  thorough  knowledge  of  a  few,  especially  one  subject. 


Rev,  De  E.  Jenkins: 

"Depends  on  the  boy.  There  is  no  average  boy,  perhaps 
the  circumstances  and  aptitudes  of  boys  are  usually  quite  * 
specific  and  determinate.  If  it  were  my  boy  about  whom  you 
were  inquiring,  I  would  say  Ho.  4," 


Rev.  Carter  Helm  Jones: 

"I  would  prefer  this  (Ho.  4)  for  the  average  boy. 

Other  courses  of  study  would  depend  on  the  boy." 

Question  (A)  Yes. 

Question  (B)  Yes. 

"I  have  indicated  my  answer  to  the  above  questions  be¬ 
cause  I  believe  both  in  generalisation  and  specialization. 

I  think  whenever  possible  a  student  should  generalize  before 
specializing. n 


Rev.  Warren  A»  Landon  of  San  Francisco  recommends  Ho.  4 
saying : 

"I  prefer  general  culture  at  high  school  age,  because 
the  pupil  at  that  age  rarely  ever  knows  what  his  future  is 
to  be.  What  he  needs  in  my  opinion  is  not  facts  or  detailed 
knowledge  but  culture  of  the  mind," 


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43 


Rev,  M,  A.  Matthews  prefers  No,  4  "by  all  means". 
First  (Yes). 

Second  (Yes  and  for  specialists). 


Rev.  James  K. McClure  advises  No.  4  "with.  History  --  Grecian 
and  Roman  in  a  general  way,  English  and  American  in  a  particular 
way,  English  Literature,  Astronomy,  Geology,  Botany  and  Sociolo- 


Bishop  Francis  McConnell: 

"I  do  not  see  how  any  general  rules  can  be  laid  down. 

The  best  results  seem  to  me  to  be  likely  by  a  system  of 
organization  which  makes  possible  some  "trying  out"  of  the 
individual  boy  in  the  first  year  of  high  school  and  then  an  ad¬ 
aptation  nf  the  course  in  the  light  of  the  results  obtained." 


Bishop  Wm*  F.  McDowell: 

"It  would  all  depend  upon  the  boy  in  my  opinion.  My 
preference  would  be  No,  1." 


Rev.  Wallace  Radcliffe  advocates  No.  4. 

"I  believe  the  whole  system  of  optional  studies  for 
the  youth  is  wrong.  Youth  is  inexperienced  and  needs  intel¬ 
ligent  authority  and  direction.  Its  spirit  is  strongly  ma¬ 
terialistic  and  selfish  and  preventive  of  true  development 
and  power.  After  the  young  manhood  is  obtained  and  the  life 
work  decided  upon,  the  option  may  be  allowed  with  advantage, 
but  not  before . ” 


Rev.  Robert  W,  Rogers  emphasizes  No.  4  "by  all  means. 


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Rev 


Ke  prefers  Ho,  4. 

Question  (A)  Yes, 

Question  (b)  No, 

"I  do  not  believe  in  too  early  specialization  certainly 
not  in  high  schools.” 


Bishop  David  Tuttle: 

"I  should  advise,  unless  strong  personal  predilections 
pointed  otherwise,  Ho,  4." 


Bishop  John  H,  Vincent  prefers  Ho.  4  "by  all  means”. 

"The  High  School  should  anticipate  and  prepare  its 
pupils  for  thorough  work  in  the  studies  that  make  for  sym¬ 
metrical  education  and  insure  early  in  life  the  broader 
view  of  culture.” 

Question  (A)  (Yes). 

Question  (B)  (Yes  for  Discipline  and  Power);  "to  be 
acquired  through  the  after-college  and  adult  years.  But 
to  be  begun  during  the  formative  years;  otherwise  these 
studies  overlooked  and  neglected  in  school  years  are  in 
danger  of  being  always  depreciated." 


Rev,  Charles  Wood  recommends  Ho,  4. 

Question  (A).  Yes. 

Question  (B).  Ho. 

"The  average  boy  needs  general  culture  as  a  founda¬ 
tion.  Specialization  should  be  reserved  for  more  mature 
scholars . 


Physicians 

Dr<.  E.  L.  Bradford  prefers  Ho,  4, 

"Understanding  by  classics,  liberal  studies  and  by 
mathematics,  physics  in  addition  to  pure  mathematics." 


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45 


Dr.  Lavrrason  Brown  recommends  No.  4. 

Question  (A),  Yes. 

Question  (B).  No. 

"The  high  school  is  not  a  place  where  a  future  medical 
student  should  begin  to  specialize.” 


Dr.  George  Dock  prescribes  No.  4-  with  History,  English, 
bialogy,  chemistry,  German  or  French. 


Dr.  W.  C.  Gorga.S : 

”1  would  allow  boy  to  choose  courses.” 


Dr.  W o  D.  Gatch  suggests  No.  4,  with  General  History  and 
United  States  History,  and  a  thorough  course  in  English. 


Dr.  W,  ¥.  Keen  chooses  No.  4. 

"By  all  means  this  if  possible.  But  there  are  some  - 
not  very  many  -  who  so  detest  mathematics  or  whose  minds  do 
not  comprehend  mathematics  that  for  such  No.  o  would  give 
better  results.” 


Dr.  Wm«  Jo  Mayo  advises  No.  o  as  high  school  preliminary 
for  the  profession  of  medicine  with  Latin  and  Science. 


Dr*  Chas.  Minor  emphasises  No.  4. 

"Both  for  culture  and  for  use  in  after  life  I  consider 
classics  and  mathematics  essential."  To  these  he  adds  His¬ 
tory,  two  modern  languages,  and  one  science. 

He  advises  "For  culture  and  practical  use  a  general 
knowledge  of  a  great  number  and  a  thorough  knowledge  of  one 
subject , " 


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..  . 

, 

Dr.  M.  M*  Portis  advocates  Ho.  8  with  history,  English, 


German,  French,  physiology,  physics  and  chemistry. 


Dr.  Theobald  Smith: 

” If  we  were  able  to  make  a  prognosis  of  a  boy’s  future 
capacities  and  tastes, I  presume  the  answer •  .‘would  have  to  be  indi¬ 
vidualized.  On  the  whole,  I  believe  mathematics  and  observ- 
vational  and  experimental  science  the  best  occupation  for 
the  boy  in  intermediate  schools.  To  these  may  be  added  Eng¬ 
lish,  the  classics,  modern  languages  as  far  as  time  and 
thoroughness  permit . ,f 


Dr.  R.  L.  Wilbur  prefers  No.  1,  and  recommends  a  modern 
language  and  a  laboratory  course  or  two  in  the  Sciences,  Biology, 
Chemistry  and  Physics  with  any'  other  work  desired  which  is  well 
taught  and  of  which  enough  is  given  to  permit  the  student  to  ac¬ 
quire  a  sound  basis  upon  which  he  can  later  build. 


Dr,  Cunningham  Wilson  prefers  No.  8  or  No.  4,  preferably 


No.  4. 


"If  a  high  school  bo3r  has  a  general  knowledge  of  many 
subjects  I  think  he  is  more  capable  of  acquiring  special 
knowledge  in  after  life,” 


Dr.  John  A.  Wyeth  prescribes  No.  4. 

:;I  think  too  much  time  is  given  to  what  we  have  grad¬ 
ually  been  taught  to  believe  is  ’education  ’.  A  fair  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  Latin  and  Greek  should  be  required.  Only 
the  essen1 lals  of  mathematics  unless  one  is  to  devote  one’s 
life  to  tne  most  fascinating  of  all  subjects,  but  as  far  as 
the  affairs  of  life  —  in  the  vast  major ity  of  lives  —  this 
study  is  a  waste  of  time. 

A  good  country  school  for  a  boy  from  8  to  15  and  then 
crowd  him  to  the  end  of  his  18th  year.  This  should  end  his 
punishment  inside  of  walls. 

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College  4  years  is  for  95  of  every  100  a  misfortune, 
fife  work  should  "begin  at  19  or  20  instead  of  24-  or  30.  He 
is  entitled  to  40  years  of  action  at  least." 


Lawyers 

(In  sending  out  the  letters,  the  names  of  seventeen  lawyers 
were  overlooked). 

Hon*  S.  S.  Gregory: 

"No  general  rule  can  "be  adopted.  However  for  a  lad 
whose  circumstances  admit  of  it  and  whose  tastes  so  incline 
him  I  believe  in  this  course  (No  4).  I  regard  it  as  spec¬ 
ially  desirable  for  those  who  expect  to  enter  a  profession. 

The  chief  purpose  of  education  other  than  vocational 
is  to  my  mind  to  open  the  mind  to  knowledge  and  general  In¬ 
formation.  If  an  intelligent  youth  at  school  or  college 
acquires  in  the  right  way  something  as  to  various  important 
branches  of  education,  his  interest  in  them  is  thus  inspired 
and  he  appropriates,  places  and  retains  knowledge  in  those 
subjects  which  he  acquired  through  life." 


Hon.  Wade  H.  Ellis  advocates  No.  2  with  Latin  or  French, 
English,  American  History  and  Government. 


Hon.  Peter  S.  Grosscup  prefers  No.  4  and 

"no  other  course  until  after  graduation.  Of  course,  if 
a  boy  is  destined  for  engineer  work  or  other  similar  work 
and  cannot  afford  to  go  to  college,  1  would  suggest  No.  2" 


Hon.  Frederick  N.  Judson: 

"It  depends  upon  whether  he  Intends  to  go  to  college 
or  into  business  without  a  college  course.  In  either  case 
I  would  prefer  No.  2  to  No.  1;  and  in  case  of  a  college 
course,  I  would  prefer  No.  4." 

Question  (A).  Yes  and  if  practical  in  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  a  few  subjects. 

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48 


The  following  letter  is  from  the  President  of  the  board  of 
trustees  of  one  of  our  leading  universities.  He  has  contributed 
much  time  and  large  sums  of  money  towards  the  advancement  of  the 
higher  education, 

(Confidential ) . 

"I  hesitate  to  express  an  opinion  but  from  my  experi¬ 
ence  with  young  men,  I  prefer  #  4,  In  the  avers,ge  boy,  the 
accurate  thought  in  Mathematics  seems  to  be  necessary  in  all 
lines  of  work,  while  the  ability  to  be  interested  in  life 
seems  to  come  from  chassical  studies  more  than  from  ” prac¬ 
tical"  ones.  My  experience  with  most  high  school  boys  in 
business  is  that  they  lack  imagination,  have  no  broad  view 
of  what  life  really  means,  and  no  perspective.  They  are 
never  able  to  be  worth  more  .than  $1200  a-year  even  after 
years  of  experience.  If  the  average  boy  is  given  a  thor¬ 
ough  training  in  $4  and  taught  how  to  " sweat*  mentally  in 
getting  it,  I  think  he  has  the  best  chance  of  success." 

”To  have  had  no  Latin,”  says  Professor  Paul  Shcrey, 

"means  that  you  do  not  know  the  logic  or  understand  the 
categories  of  general  grammar;  that  2?-ou  do  not  know  and  can- 
not  safely  learn  from  a  lexicon  the  essential  and  root  mean¬ 
ings  of  English  vocables;  that  you  cannot  guard  yourself 
against  the  use  of  mixed  metaphors;  that  you  are  mystified  by 
the  variations  in  meanings  in  Shakespeare , the  Romance,  languages 
and  modern  English;  that  you  cannot  even  guess  at  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  countless  technical  T3hrases,  familiar  quotations,  and 
proverbs,  and  compendious  Latin  formulas  that  are  so  essen¬ 
tial  a  part  of  the  dialect  of  educated  men  that  the  fierhe-st 
adversaries  of  the  classics  besprinkle  their  pages  with  mis^e 
prints  of  them; that  Rome  is  as  remote  to  you  as  China;  that  ■ 
French  literature  is  a  series  of  unintelligible  allusions; 
that  travel  in  Italy  loses  half  its  charm;  that  you  cannot 
decipher  an  inscription  in  Westminster  Abbey,  on  Boston 
Common,  or  on  the  terrace  of  Quebec;  that,  not  to  go  back 
to  Milton  and  the  Elizabethans,  who  are  unintelligible  with¬ 
out  Latin,  you  cannot  make  out  the  texts  from  which  Addison1 s 
Spectator  discourses,  you  do  not  know  half  tho  time  what 
Johnson  and  Boswell  are  talking  about;  that  'Pope  and  all  the 
characteristic  writers  of  the  so-called  Golden  Age  are  sealed 
books  to  you;  that  you  are  ill  at  ease  and  feel  yourself  an 
outsider  in  reading  the  correspondence  of  Tennyson  and  Fitz¬ 
gerald  and  even  in  reading  Thackeray’s  novels.” 

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49 


Business  Men 


Mr.  John  John  Allen  advises  No.  4  with  Mathematics,  English 
Literature,  French,  German,  Spanish,  Latin,  History,  Elementary 
Economics  and  Civics,  Bookkeeping  and  accounting  (optional). 

"At  high  school  the  student  should  he  taught  a  great 
number  of  subjects  and  in  this  way  be  given  a  good  broad 
foundation  for  knowledge.  He  will  have  plenty  of  time  late 
on  to  specialize  in  a  few  subjects. 

"Before  answering  your  questions  I  consulted  with  my 
son  and  a  classmate  of  his,  both  graduates  of  Yale.  They 
are  now  in  the  mercantile  business.  We  all  agree  on  No.  4. 


Mr.  Thomas  W.  Allen  prefers  No.  2  with  modern  languages 

(Spanish  preferred)  history  and  one  science. 

"The  above  for  the  average  boy  who  finishes  his  school 
days  with  high  school  course." 


Mr.  Win.  H.  Alms:  ✓ 

"I  believe  in  a  course  where  mathematics  is  required 
and  classics  optional." 


Mr.  Win.  F.  Anderson: 

"I  regard  a  training  in  mathematics  as  better  prepa¬ 
ration  for  a  boy  today  than  the  study  of  the  classics.  If 
only  two  subjects  can  be  thoroughly  studied,  why  not  math¬ 
ematics  and  science? 

Question  (A).  "If  this  alternative  is  necessary,  I 
should  say  a  thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  subjects." 


Mr.  L.  Ao  Ault  chooses  No.  2. 

"For  all  American,  learn  Spanish,  then  French  and 
German. " 


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50 


Mr*  James  Bullock  chooses  No.  2. 

Would  prefer  this  course  with  United  States  History, 
English  History,  Languages  (French  or  German).  No  Latin 
or  Greek." 


Drc  Howard  Ayres: 

"It  would  all  depend  upon  the  coy  and  his  purpose  in 
life.  The  two  most  important  elements  in  choice  of  studies 
for  youth  of  high  school  age,  are  -first  the  hoy  and  second 
the  teacher.  The  personality  and  capacity  of  the  teacher  is 
more  important  than  the  question  of  the  number  of  subjects. 
In  general  the  value  of  mathematics  is  greater  than  that  of 
the  classics  to  the  youth  of  today." 


Mr.  John'  A.  Ohurch  prefers  No.  4. 

"From  a  business  man’s  viewpoint,  graduates  of  our 
high  schools  should  have  some  general  knowledge  of  commercial 
forms,  customs,  efficiency,  etc.  No  matter  what  work  the 
boy  takes  up,  he  should  know  something  about  commerce." 


Mr.  Louis  J.  Dauner  (Acting  May-er)  answered  the  questions 
sent  to  Mayor  Spiegel  as  follows: 

"As  primary  education  is  generally  understood  to  have 
been  completed  when  the  pupil  reaches  the  high  school,  I  am 
of  the  opinion  that  his  parents  or  other  adults  capable  of 
judging  his  talents  or  bent,  direct  him  in  the  selection  of 
the  subjects  to  be  taught  which  best  fit  the  pupil.  If  this 
deduction  is  impossible,  then  the  most  comprehensive  course 
is  advisable,  which  would  be  indicated  as  No.  4  on  your  list. 


Hr s «  Karrv  Dunham  wrefers  No.  2. 

f  -u 

"I  think  the  sciences  are  more  important  in  this  age 
than  ei'bher  higher  mathematics  or  the  classics.  I  prefer 
modern  languages  after  one  \rear  of  Latin  or  Greek.  I  be¬ 
lieve  in  a  general  knowledge  so  that  a  boy  may  intelligently 
choose  the  subjects  in  which  he  desires  or  needs  thorough 
knowledge.  If  he  has, at  high  school  age,  chosen  his  life 
work,  I  think  he  should  have  the  right  of  partial  but  not 
complete  specialization  along  that  line." 

2220 


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51 


Hr.  Edward  S •  Ebbert  recommends  Ho.  2. 

:,This  would  be  my  preference  for  any  boy.  The  ’three 
R’s’  need  emphasis  up  to  Commencement  Day.’5 


Mr.  E.  W.  Edwards  suggests  either  No.  2  or  No.  4. 

"No.  2:  This,  where  the  student  does  not  know  his  fu¬ 
ture  occupation. 

No.  4:  This,  if  the  student  intends  to  be  a  profession¬ 
al  man. 

The  more  general  knowledge  he  has,  the  greater  his 
chances  for  building  up  after  he  leaves  school.” 


Mr.  Thomas  P.  Egan  prescribes  either  No.  4  or  No.  2. 

”No.  2:  for  business,  you  must  have  mathematics. 
No.  4:  yes,  but  by  all  means  have  mathematics.” 


«  •—«  *  —  *— <  m 


Mr.  Franklin  T„  Ellis: 

”1  do  not  favor  an  optional  course  in  the  public  high 
schools  until  after  the  second  year  of  the  high  school. i  regard 
fche  public  high  schools  of  our  country  as  the  people’s  col¬ 
leges  and  believe,  in  general  terms,  in  the  course  No.  4  on 
this  sheet.  But  after  passing  the  second  year  in  the  high 
school,  if  a  student  has  some  special  profession  or  trade 
or  business  in  view*  I  should  advise  that  he  might  take 
some  optional  studies  after  the  second  year,  in  accordance 
with  his  plans  for  the  future.  I  believe  that  all  students 
should  be  required  to  make  somo  acquaintance  with  the  Class¬ 
ics,  with  Mathematics,  and  covering  at  least  an  equivalent 
of  feur  or  five  books  of  Caesar  in  Latin,  and  have  a  good 
knowledge  of  Algebra  and  Geometry.” 


Mr.  Jno.  C.  Gallagher: 

"This  (No.  2)  is  the  course  I  would  take  and  recommend.” 


Mr.  Fred  A.  Geier  recommends  No.  4  with  modern  languages, 

modern  History,  business  courses  and  trade  courses. 

'  oopn 


\ 


I 


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1 


■ 


52 


Mr.  Edwin  Go shorn: 

trIn  making  a  choice  of  the  courses  which  you  indicate 
on  this  "blank ,  I  should  select  No.  2  as  best  of  the  four, 
if  it  were  necessary  to  make  a  selection. 

I  believe  it  to  be  essential  for  every  boy  to  have  a 
training  in  mathematics,  no  matter  what  his  subsequent  bus¬ 
iness  or  profession  may  be.  If  his  education  is  to  be  con¬ 
tinued  by  a  university  course,  it  will  be  essential  to  have 
a  certain  amount  of  training  in  the  classics  unless  the  boy 
has  elected  to  take  a  technical  course  only. 

It  is  opinion  that  the  real  place  to  determine  what 
should  be  the  course  of  education  for  the  boy,  is  in  the 
common  schools,  where  he  is  supposed  to  have  an  education 
which  covers  six  years  and  during-  that  time  his  teachers 
should  become  intimately  acquainted  with  his  capacity  and 
know  in  just  what  branch  of  education  he  should  be  developed. 15 


Mr.  James  A  Green  advises  No.  4  with  Modern  Languages, 
French  and  German. 


Mr.  Wm.  Guckenberger  selects  No.  4. 

I  believe  our  youth  should  take  a  course  requiring  the 
classics  and  mathematics.  A  commercial  course  should  also 
be  taken  to  give  them  some  idea  of  business  as  it  is  car¬ 
ried  on  in  our  country. 

(Question  A).  This  thorough  knowledge  will  do  for  a 
man  who  wants  to  specialize." 


Mr.  George  W.  Harris  recommends  No.  2. 

"I  am  an  advocate  of  the  principles  urged  by  Spencer- 
in  his  work  on  ! Education’ • ” 


Mr.  C.  L.  Harrison  chooses  No.  2. 

"I  would  advise  this  with  further  option  of  Physics, 
History  and  Chemistry.  I  would  touch  lightly  on  the  Class¬ 
ics  e  " 


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53 


Mr*  James  C.  Hobart  advises  No.  2. 

"If  history  were  substituted  for  classics,  I  believe 
this  course  most  generally  useful. 

I  believe  that  studies  should  be  arranged  with  the  idea 
and  the  purpose  of  developing  the  students’  natural  gifts 
and  that  the  privilege  of  ’  option's  T  should  be  based  on  pro¬ 
ficiency  in  the  elementary  subjects  leading  up  to  any  op¬ 
tional  course  and  not  left  unconditioned  to  either  student 
or  parent.  As  suggestions  for  additional  courses  would  note 
the  importance  of  foreign  languages  and  modern  accounting." 


—  *  X-  !  *— * 


Mr.  N.  D.  G *  Hodges,  Librarian,  prefers  No©  4. 

"The  course  of  classics  and  mathematics  served  a 
good  purpose  for  many  generations." 

"Nothing  should  be  optional  with  a -high  school  boy. 

I  am  going  to  venture  what  has  been  termed  my  good 
sixteenth  century  pedagogy.  I  am  of  the  oipnion  that  the 
elementary  schools  have  just  one  lesson  to  teach.  That  les¬ 
son  is  the  power  of  application  to  disagreeable  tasks.  To 
put  it  boldly,  the  function  of  the  elementary  schools  is  not 
to  impart  knowledge,  but  to  train  the  pupils  so  that  they 
later  can  and  will  apply  themselves  to  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge.  When  I  was  in  the  high  school,  I  had  to  study 
the  classics  and  mathematics.  I  enjoyed  the  mathematics, 

I  hated  the  classics.  My  four  years  in  the  high  school  and 
my  freshman  year  at  Harvard  contained  no  electives.  1  hated 
the  classics  to  that  extent  that  I  resolved  that  I  would 
never  look  at  a  word  of  Latin  or  a  word  of  C-reek  after  I 
was  once  free.  To-day  I  am  more  thankful  for  having  my 
nose  kept  to  the  grindstone  during  those  five  years  than  for 
anything  in  my  earlier  education.  I  kept  my  resolve  about 
not  reading  Greek  or  Latin  for  a  number  of  years,  but  saw 
the  folly  of  it  long  ago." 


Mr.  Henry  Hunt  advocates  No.  4. 

"We  need  mental  discipline.  At  the  present  time  edu¬ 
cation  is  too  soft  for  the  average  student.  Mathematics 
makes  the  mind  a  living  engine  (and  not  a  sponge)  to  do 
work,  an  1  classics  give  joy  and  color  to  life." 


Mr.  Ro  F.  Johnston  suggests  No.  2  with  Salesmanship,  Man¬ 
ual  Training,  Manual  Art  and  a  Business  Course, 

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Mr.  Chas.  J.  Livingood  enphasizes  No.  4. 

’’Both  Mathematics  and  the  classics  are  fundamental, 
also  history  especially  of  the  United  States.’1 


Mr.  T.  C.  Powell  prefers  No.  4  including  history  and  geog 


raphy. 

i 

”1  believe  that  the  prevailing  fault  in  our  present 
system  of  education  is  the  lack  of  accuracy,  and  until  the 
corps  of  teachers  overcomes  that  prevailing  fault,  a  large 
proportion  of  the  teaching  will  be  utterly  wasted. 

In  voting  in  favor  of  No.  4;  that  is  to  say,  a  course 
requiring  both  the  classics  and  mathematics,  and  including 
history  and  geography,  I  may  appear  slightly  in  conflict 
with  my  second  vote  against  a  general  knowledge  of  a  great 
number  of  subjects  and  in  favor  of  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
a  few  subjects. 

The  best  incentive  is  a  feeling  of  competition  with 
some  one  else,  and  among  those  schools  which  I  attended 
those  which  made  a  feature  of  this  competitive  spirit  through 
out  the  daily  recitations,  and  not  simply  once  a  month  or 
at  the  periods  of  examinations,  produced,  in  my  opinion, 
the  best  results. 

We  are  living  in  an  age  of  specialists  and  it  some¬ 
times  appears  as  though  accuracy  is  regarded  as  a  special 
course  and.  that  only  those  who  intend  to  d.evote  their  busi¬ 
ness  or  professional  life  to  accurate  mathematical  and  chem¬ 
ical  calculations  are  justified  in  paying  much  attention 
to  accuracy. 

But  when  you  realize  that  when  a  boy  has  been  taught 
in  the  public  schools  and  goes  into  the  business  world.,  the 
first  course  through  which  he  is  put  is  one  which  is  in¬ 
tended  to  impress  upon  him  the  necessity  for  accuracy,  you 
will  appreciate  that  thiB  is  one  of  the  crying  needs  of  the 
loresent  system  of  education. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  vote  in  favor  of  classics 
and  mathematics  and  for  history  and  geography.  These  studies 
'are  more  likely  to  insure  accuracy  than  a  slight  knowledge 
•  of  a  great  many  subjects. 


Mr.  Victor  Price  selects  No.  4  with  a  modern  language  In 
addition. 


t!I  have  felt  for  a  number  of  years,  that  we  are  tend¬ 
ing  too  much  toward  specialization,  although  I  realize  that 
a  very  small  percentage  of  the  graduates  of  the  high  schools 
take  a  further  educations,l  course.  The  result  of  a  number 

9,220 


\ 


of  years  observation  leads  me  to  believe  that  early  special¬ 
izing  is  a  mistake,  and  tends  to  produce  a  narrow  type  of  man 
The  specialist  should  be  developed  after  a  broad  course  of 
general  education  has  been  obtained  to  produce  the  best  type 
of  man  • 


Mr.  John  Shuff  advises  No.  2. 

'’Always  include  mathematics.  Very  few  boys  when  enterin 
high  school  know  what  is  really  best  for  them  ard  the  parent 
are  generally  swollen  with  pride. 

Good  English  is,  most  of  all,  important  and  most  neglected 


Mr.  J.  G.  Schmidlapp  is  opposed  "to  what  is  known  as  the 
elective  system  of  studies." 


Mr.  John  V.  Stephens  suggests  No.  4  with  English,  Science 
and  History. 


Mr.  No  V/.  Strowbridge  prefers  No.  4  with  Chemistry,  Physics 
and  Logic,  "assuming  that  the  boy  is  to  leave  school  and  go  to 
work  after  the  high  school  course  and  believing  the  important 
thing  is  to  equip  him  to  think  and  to  think  accurately." 


Mr.  Walter  J.  Wichgar  takes  No.  1. 

"My  opinion  would  favor  a  general  knowledge  of  a  great 
number  of  subjects  up  to  the  certain  point  only,  after  which 
specialized  knowledge  in  a  few  selocted  subjects  for  which 
student  seems  best  adapted." 


Mr.  Chas .  Windisch  recommends  either  No.  1  or  No.  4, 

Ke  would  recommend  No.  1  if  the  boy  was  not  going  to 
continue  his  studies  beyond  the  high  school. 

He  would  recommend  No.  4  if  the  boy  intended  to  go  to 
college.  He  believes  that  more  time  should  be  spent  on  the 
study  of  Spanish. 

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Rev.  H.  Crane: 

"Ho.  2;  I  think  this  course  would  Toe  my  first  choice. 
Ho.  4;  Ye s,  if  a  boy  has  decided  upon  a  course  in  life 
that  requires  both  classics  and  mathematics. 

Ho.  3;  A  boy  should  have  mathematics.” 


Rev.  F.  K*  Farr  advocates  Ho.  4  with  English,  History,  Sci¬ 
ence  and  German. 


Rev.  Levi  Gilbert  prefers  Ho.  1  with  "Domestic  Science,  Soci 
ological  (Intro.);  Political  Economics;  Civics  (intro.);  English 
Literature  (General  Survey);  Romance  Languages  (Intro.);  and 
German. !! 


Rev.  Charles  F.  Goss  emphasizes  Ho.  4  "beyond  all  question." 


Rev.  Jacob  W.  Lapp: 

"Ho.  2:  This  course  for  a  boy  who  expects  to  enter 
business  life. 

Ho.  3:  This  course  for  one  who  will  enter  college  or 
University  and  will  make  a  specialty  of  language. 

Ho.  4:  This  course  for  one  who  expects  to  enter  col¬ 
lege  or  University  and  obtain  a  general  education." 


Rev.  Edward  Mack  selects  Ho.  4  with  History  (Ancient  and 
American),  English  Literature,  one  modern  language  (German  pre¬ 
ferred),  Elementary  Science,  Botany,  Physiology  or  Zoology,  Ele¬ 
mentary  Chemistry. 

Question  (s).  Yes  "with  a  view  to  acquiring  method  and  ap¬ 
plication,  in  order  to  obtain  the  mastery  of  general  knowledge." 


2220 


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. 


Rev.  Charles  L.  Neibel  advises  No.  2. 

11 A  good  deal  depends  upon  whether  the.  boy  must  be  con¬ 
tent  with  a  high  school  education  only, or  whether  he  will  be' 
financially  able  to  go  to  advanced  schools..  I  recommend -to -add 
tion  English,  History,  some  Science,  a  modern  Language  and 
add  such  other  subjects  as  certain  conditions  may  indicate. 
Obviously  the  bey  who  is  pre-par ing  for  college  or  technical 
school  needs  a  somewhat  different  course  from  the  lad  who 
will  never  go  beyond  the  high  school. 

What  is  needed,  is  not  a  ’smattering’  of  many  Subjects 
but  a  firm  groundwork  in  mental  discipline  that  will  develop 
his  thinking  power.  In  most  cases  I  ^should  recommend  that  a 
boy  take  at  least  on©  of  the  classics.  In  other  cases  I 
should^ prge  both  Latin  and  Creek." 


Rev.  Frank  H.  Nelson: 

”1  would  advise  No.  4  as  I  believe  the  classics  of 
great  cultural  value  and  mathematics  essential  to  clear 
thinking. " 


Rev.  David  Phi lip son: 

"In  addition  to  the  requirements  of  classics  and  math¬ 
ematics  I  would  recommend  English  Literature,  one  modern 
language  (French,  German  or  Spanish),  and  one  natural  Sci¬ 
ence.  " 


Rev.  Charles  c*  Reade: 

"No.  4.  Yes,  as  in  most  cases  the  age  of  definite  de¬ 
cision  for  life  work  has  not  yet  arrived. 

Question  (A).  Yes.  I  believe  the  age  of  specialization 
comes  later  and.  a  good  foundation  in  classics  and  ms, thematic s 
is  essential. 

If  a  boy  of  high  school  age  does  not  try  both  the  class¬ 
ics  and  mathematics,  how  can  he  tell  where  his  talent  lies?" 


Rev.  Silby  Vanco  recommends  No.  2. 

"Depends  somewhat  upon  the  student.  In  general,  mathe¬ 
matics  required  of  all  and  some  work  in  two  of  the  four  fol¬ 
lowing  languages:  Latin,  Creek,  German,  French.  Additional 
required  work  in  English,  History,  and  one  Science, 

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58 


"I  recommend  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  above  subjects 
for  mental  discipline,  broad  foundation  and  general  culture, 
combined  with  a  general  knowledge  of  a  number  of  subjects  for 
information. " 


! 


Bishop  Boyd  Vincent: 

"No.  1;  this,  when  there  is  no  pronounced  inclination 
toward  either  ’optional’. 

Bo.  2;  this,  where  the  student  shows  a  pronounced  ’sci¬ 
entific  habit  of  mind* . 

No.  3;  this,  when  the  student  has  a  decided  inclination 
toward  one  of  the  ’learned  professions’. 

He  believes  in  "a  broad  foundation, general  intelligence  at 
first  and  then  specialization.” 


Rev.  E.  P.  Whallon  recommends  No*  4  with  General  History, 
Composition  and  Historic • 

"An  excellent  rule  for  any  student  or  professional  man, 
is  to  learn  as  much  as  possible  of  one  thing  and  something 
of  many  other  things.  Mastery  in  one  department;  some  knowl¬ 
edge  in  many," 


2220 


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Medic ine . 


59 


Dr.  Sam  Allen  prescribes  No.  2  with  History,  Science  and 
modern  Languages. 


Dr.  Edward  R.  Baldwin  prefers  either  No.  2  or  No.  4  with 
I!more  English  in  both  of  them.” 


Dr.  0.  L.  Bonifield: 

” I  believe  in  No.  4,  regarding  mathematics  as  the  best 
mental  training  and  the  classics  of  inestimable  value  to  any 
one  who  uses  the  English  Language.  My  severest  criticism 
of  the  Public  Schools  is  that  their  pupils  graduate  with  a 
smattering  of  many  things  but  a  thorough  knowledge  of  none. 
It  gives  them  the  habit  of  superficiality  which  is  hard  to 
overcome.  The  successful  man  is  the  one  who  can  do  some 
one  thing  better  than  his  fellows.” 


Dr.  A.  C.  Bachmeyer: 

"No.  2;  plus  a  thorough  business  training  and  with 
special  subjects  to  prepare  him  for  his  chosen  profession. 

No.  4;  for  the  boy  intending  to  follow  one  of  the  pro¬ 
fessions  . 

I  believe  in  an  elementary  knowledge  of  a  number  of  sub 
jects,  such  as  is  secured  in  high  school  followed  by  special 
ization  later  at  college.'1 


Dr.  Arch.  I  Carson: 

"Depends  on  the  after  career.  The  course  is  of  less 
importance  than  the  method  and  teacher.  The  important 
things  are  to  teach  ability  to  concentrate  and  how  to  study j 
application. t: 


Dr.  Harry  Dunham: 

No.  2  is  chosen  with  the  hope  that  German  and  French 
may  replace  Greek  and  Latin..” 


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/ 


60 


Dr.  J.  H.  Eiohberg: 

"A  course  should  bo  selected  to  furthor  the  boys  future 
intention. " 


Dr.  John  E.  Grieve: 

”1  favor  a  course  requiring  both  the  classics  and  math¬ 
ematics  and  furthermore  a  general  knowledge  of  a  great  many 
sub  jects , " 


Dr.  C.  R.  Holmes  chooses  No.  2. 

"Nos.  5  and  4  depend  upon  what  the  student  is  going  to 
take  up  for  his  life  vrork. 

In  response  to  your  circular  I  beg  to  say  that  to  my 
mind  #2  and  $4  should  depend  upon  whether  the  student  has 
funds  at  his  disposal  that  will  enable  him  to  carry  out  the 
courses  which  the  higher  education  requires,  or  whether  he 
should  simply  have  a  practical  education.  If  he  is  to  fit 
himself  as  a  mechanic  or  foreman,  I  take  it  that  his  educa¬ 
tion  should  be  different  than  if  he  expects  to  enter  the 
engineering  or  even  a  business  career,  and  certainly  there 
should  be  a  marked  difference  if  he  is  going  into  the 
learned  professions# 

It  appears  to  me  that  we  are  losing  too  much  valuable 
time  in  giving  some  young  men  and  women  more  education  than 
is  necessary  for  the  stations  which  they  are  going  to  occupy 
in  life,  and  not  enough  to  fit  them  for  different  spheres, 
thereby  frequently  taking  out  of  their  lives  two  or  three 
valuable  years  which  might  better  be  devoted  to  the  practi¬ 
cal  side,  and  that  most  profitably." 


Dr.  Oliver  P.  Holt: 

M I  most  heartily  recommend  No.  4  but  It  should  not  be 
too  prolonged.  The  Natural  Sciences  should  be  taken  in  con 
junction  with  it. 

A  thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  subjects  will  produce 
the  greater  power  of  concentration  and  it  will  develop  the 
reasoning  faculties  to  a  greater  degree.  The  lack  of  these 
qualities  seems  to  be  the  fault  of  modern  systems." 


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31 


Dr.  F.  W.  Langdon: 

"Ho.  2:  First  Choice.  As  a  ’trier  out’  of  capacity, 
mathematics  seems  most  important.  Therefore  school-students 
shouls  have  opportunity  for  the  foundations  of  mathematics. 
Probably  f ew  would  he  justified  in  following  it  up  in  a 
thorough  sense  later  hut  this  ’few'  is  important. 

Ho.  4:  Second  Choice, 

Question  (A).  Yes  as  an  aid  to  expansion. 

Question  (B).  (No,  rather  than  contraction  of  interests), 
the  ultimate  tendency  of  later  years  being  of  necessity  to¬ 
ward  contraction. 

Again  a  high  school  pupil  could  hardly  he  expected  to 
obtain  a  ’thorough’  knowledge  of  even  one  subject." 


Dr.  E.  W »  Mitchell: 

"No.  2.  I  would  have  some  science  required  —  class 
ics  optional  with  modern  language," 


Dr.  Win.  D.  Porter: 

"I  do  not  think  it  is  possible  to  select  a  ’best  course’ 
for  all  students;  as  the  natural  bent  of  each  should  be  con¬ 
sidered.  To  be  specific,  I  believe  the  best  results  would 
be  obtained  for  the  greatest  number  by  combining  Latin  and 
Mathematics  and  to  build  up  the  remainder  of  the  course  with 
science  or  literature  according  to  the  ability  and  inclina¬ 
tion  of  the  student.  I  have  talked  with  a  number  of  suc¬ 
cessful  men  of  good  oducation,  and  a  large  proportion  attach 
much  importance  to  their  grounding  in  mathematics  and  Latin. " 


Dr.  B.  E.  Rachford  prescribes  No.  2. 

"I  believe  in  the  high  school  course  that  every  pupil 
should  be  required  to  take  mathematics  and  that  the  remainder 
of  the  course  should  be  optional;  that  is  to  say,  it  should 
be  chosen  with  reference  to  the  bent  of  the  pupil’s  mind, 

I  believe  that  specialization  in  individual  subjects 
should  follow  the  high  school  course." 


Dr.  Robert  W.  Stewart  emphasizes  No.  4  "unquestionably"; 
and" these  subjects  until  the  student  knows  something." 

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32 


Mr.  Alfred  B.  Benedict  advocates  ITo.  2. 

/ 

"No.  4:  Mo,  but  second  choice. 

I  believe  that  mathematics  should  above  all  other  sub¬ 
jects  be  required,  as  it  is  the  best  hnovm  training  for  the 
reasoning  faculties .  Next  come  the  physical  sciences,  as 
human  beings  should  know  the  world  they  live  in.  If  a  boy 
is  to  go  beyond  the  high  school  or  is  intended  for  profes¬ 
sional  or  literary  work  the  classics  are  essential.” 


Mr.  John  E.  Bruce  prefers  No.  4. 

"I  approve  this  course  (No.  4).  French  or  German 
might  be  required  instead  of  Greek,  or  in  addition  thereto.' 


Mr.  Richard  Ernst: 

”1  want  both  classics  and  mathematics  and  a  thorough 
course  in  English. " 


Mr.  John  Galvin  selects  No.  4-  "with  as  much  history  as  can 


proper lv  be  added. 


"After  the  high  school  course,  then  there  should 
perhaps  be  a,  study  of  few  subjects  for  thorough  knowledge.” 


Mr.  Charles  Theodore  Greve: 

trA  thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  studies  is  most  import¬ 
ant.  This  should  be  accompanied  by  a  general  knowledge  of 
many  to  the  extent  that  this  does  not  sacrifice  the  thor¬ 
ough  knowledge  of  the  few.” 

See  his  letter  on  page  7  of  insert. 


Mr.  L.  J*  Hackney  prefers  No.  4. 

"Other  subjects  would  depend  upon  the  capacity  and _ 
environment  of  the  boy  and  the  choice  of  his  life  work.'1 


oo  on 


■ 

■ 

.  . 


Mr,  Thornton  M.  Hinkle  advocates  No.  4. 


tr  Possibly 
modem  history 

hoy  f*7 


omitting  Greek*  adding  a  modern  language  and 
depending  largely  upon  the  character  of  the 


Mr.  George  Hoadly  writes : 

,fI  am  unable  to  answer  your  questions  in  exactly  the 
shape  they  are  put.  I  would  say  that  courses  No.  2  and  No. 

4  seem  to  me  distinctly  preferable  to  the  others;  but  it 
would  depend,  to  some  extent,  on  how  far  the  mathematical 
course  is  to  be  carried,  and  the  answer  would  be  entirely 
contingent  upon  two  questions  which  you  do  not  include  in 
fcour  questions: 

First :  Does  the  boy  in  the  supposed  case  intend  to 

carry  his  education  beyond  the  high  school  stage? 

Second:  If  he  does,  does  he  intend  to  enter  a  scien- 

tif ic  school  or  college? 

To  a  boy  who  does  not  intend  to  carry  his  education 
beyond  the  high  school  stage,  I  should  recommend  distinctly 
course  No.  2,  The  practical  value  of  mathematics  to  most 
people,  tho  moment  you  get  beyond  elementary  arithmetic,  is 
nil;  but  thoir  value  as  a  training  in  accurate  and  logical 
thinking,  if  the y  are  well  taught,  is  very  great,  and  the 
only  substitute  that  I  could  conceive  of  as  boing  of  equal 
value  is  one  that  I  do  not  believe  is  or  can  be  well  taught 
in  any  public  high  school  in  the  United  States  -  and  that 
would  be  a  really  severe  course  in  logic. 

In  addition  I  might  say  that  while  I  think  the  training 
in  accurate  thinking,  given  by  a  mathematical  course,  is 
nearly,  if  not  quite  as  valuable  as  that  given  by  a  course 
in  logic,  I  think  the  average  high  school  boy  is  sufficient! 
mature  for  a  course  at  least  in  so  much  mathematics  as  may 
be  included  in  the  ordinary  preparatory  algebra  and  in  those 
parts  of  Euclid  ordinarily  used  in  preparation  for  college 
and  in  the  college  freshman  year;  and  such  a  boy  is  not  suf¬ 
ficiently  matured  intellectually,  in  my  judgment,  to  profit 
by  a  course  in  logic. 

I  also  think  that  the  Classics,  and  particularly  Greek, 
are  of  great  value  for  much  the  same  purpose.  A  high  school 
cannot  teach,  and  the  ordinary  high  school  boy  is  not  suffi¬ 
ciently  mature  to  learn,  enough  of  any  subject  to  be  of  any 
great  practical  value.  The  course  must  be  carried  further 
for  thaw  purpose. 

The  principal  thing  that  can  be  taught  in  a  school, 
and  that  ought  to  be  taught  (and  I  regret  to  say  I  see  by  a 
number  of  publications  is  to  a  very  large  extent  not  taught) 
is  the  art  of  studying,  with  the  power  of  concentrated  and 
continuous  application.  A  school  that  would  teach  a  boy 
that,  would  teach  him  what  for  his  future  life  would  be  of 
more  value  than  anything  else  he  could  learn  In  a  high 

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school;  and  it  is  my  observation,  at  least,  that  a  boy  who 
has  been  really  well  drilled  by  a  competent  teacher  in  Greek 
learns  that  more  thoroughly  than  in  any  other  subject. 

I  am  not  speaking  of  the  boy  or  man  who  carries  his 
studies  far  enough  to  "read  Plato  with  his  feet  on  the  fend* 
er:! ,  but  of  the  boy  who  drops  the  study  say  at  the  end  of 
the  Freshman  year  in  college,  or  even  at  the  end  of  his 
school  course. 

So  far  as  possible,  it  seems  to  me  that  a  boy  should 
take  in  a  high  school  those  studies  vrhich  he  cannot  pursue 
for  himself.  A  very  good  working  knowledge  of  history,  of 
course,  -  not  accurate  or  scientific,  but  much  more  than 
the  ordinary  man  of  cultivation  possesses,  -  can  be  acquired 
by  anybody  who  has  a  taste  for  reading,  by  a  course  of  pri¬ 
vate  reading,  well  laid  out.  Of  course,  that  will  not  teach 
him  the  methods  of  historical  research. 

I  am  sorry  to  be  unable  to,  use  your  blank  in  replying 
to  you.  I  return  the  blank,  however,  and  I  would  add  one 
thing,  and  that  is,  that  it  is  far  better  to  know  one  thing 
well  than  to  have  a  smattering  of  a  great  many  things.  There 
is  no  proverbial  expression  that  has  more  truth  than  that 
which  describes  the  homo  unius  llbri  as  being  a  person  to 
be  feared.  It  is  nothing  but  a  proverbial  description  of 
the  fact  that  the  essential  in  all  things  is  thoroughness." 


Mr 0  Harry  M.  Hoffheimer. 

"I  favor  a  course  that  requires  mathematics  also  Latin 
with  Greek  optional.  There  should  be  a  substantial  course 
in  history  and  more  attention  paid  to  English." 


Mr*  Charles  J.  Hunt: 

These  questions  cannot  be  answered  Yes  or  No.  The  an¬ 
swer  depends  upon  how  many  years  the  boy  will  probably  have 
to  devote  to  school  and  college  education. 

Given  such  number  of  years,  many  or  few,  the  earlier 
years  should  be  devoted  towards  acquiring  a  general  knowl¬ 
edge  of  a  great  number  of  subjects  and  the  later  years  to¬ 
wards  acquiring  a  thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  studies. 

During  such  earlier  years  whether  few  or  many  both 
classics  a. id  mathematics  should  be  included." 


m  *— *-.1*. 


Mr  o  F er dinand  J e Ike : 

"There  are  certain  conditions  to  be  taken  into  consid¬ 
eration  in  answering  your  question. 

2220 


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Is  the  boy’s  education  to  terminate  with  the  high 
school,  or  is  the  high  school  preparatory  to  a  University 
courso? 

A,  If  the  former,  I  would  consider  aptitude  and  pros¬ 
pects.  While  the  high  school  or  adolescent  period  is  a 
little  early  to  let  aptitude  control,  it  should  be  considered 

1.  If  a  boy's  prospects  carry  him  into  industrial  life, 
I  should  favor  No.  2. 

2.  If  his  prospects  carry  him  into  commercial  life, 
insurance,  journalism,  or  any  of  the  callings  requiring  the 
elastic  mingling  with  men,  I  should  favor  No.  5. 

13.  It  seoms  that  No.  1  could  be  molded  to  fit  the  boy. 

B.  If  preparing  for  the  University,  I  would  recommend 
No  ©  4 , 

I  would  bo  influenced  by  the  same  consideration  in  an- 
sworing  your  other  two  questions. 

If  the  boy’s  course  is  to  terminate  with  the  high 
school,  I  would  favor  a  general  knowledge  of  a  great  number 
of  subjects. 

If  preparing  for  the  University,  I  would  favor  a  found¬ 
ation  and  disciplinary'  course  in  both  classics  and  mathemat¬ 
ics,  leaving  general  expansion  until  later,*  this  for  two 
reasons : 

(l)  The  later  opportunity. 

(2;  A  mind  so  trained  will  always  reach  out  for  general 
knowledge  through  a  life-time  of  intelligent  effort.” 


Mr*  Malcolm  McAvoy  recommends  No.  4.  He  believes  in  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  studies  for  high  school  at  least  and 
half  of  undergraduate  college  course  also. 


Mr.  W.  H.  Mackoys 

"No. 2:  Mathematics  and  one  or  more  modern  languages 

when  a  boy  intends  to  enter  upon  a  business  life  after  the 
conclusion  of  his  high  school  course. 

No.  4:  Both  the  classics  and  mathematics  when  a  boy 
intends  to  enter  college  after  the  conclusion  of  his  high 
school  course, 

I  b  lieve  that  a  boy  should  pursue  those  studies  which 
will  best  develop  his  capacity  to  reason  and  to  draw  con¬ 
clusions  for  himself.” 


Mr.  Stanley  Matthews : 

"This  course,  (No.  4)  seems  to  me  to  be  essontial  as 
the  groundwork  of  an  education.” 

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Mr.  Max  B.  May: 

I  should  advise  this  course  (No,  4)  provided  instruction 
is  likewise  possible  in  History  and  Science." 


+—>  t,  rnmrn  »-./*»  (»•«»  i**pm*»  *— • 


Mr.  Albert  Morrill: 

"Everything  depends  upon  the  boy.  But  for  the  average 
boy  and  for  general  purposes  of  education  I  vote  for  course 
No.  4  with  History  (Ancient  and  Modern),  English  and  Ameri¬ 
can  Literature,  Physiology,  Geology,  Botany,  one  modern  lan¬ 
guage,  and  Principles  of  Government 0" 


Mr.  Jo  W,  Peck  advocates  2. 

"A  one  or  two  year  Latin  Course,  Greek  optional,  the 
accent  on  the  sciences 0" 


Mr.  Robert  C.  Pugh  prescribes  No. 4  with  general  literature 
and  some  modern  foreign  language. 


►— >  »—  >— *•—  mm*  ****** I 


Mr.  C«  D.  Robertson  selects  No.  2. 

"No.  4;  not  for  every  student." 

"Arithmetic,  History  and  Geography  are  relatively  of 
most  value  for  boys  in  my  experience." 


Mr.  W«  P.  Rogers: 

"It  would  depend  somewhat  on  the  natural  mental  quality 
of  the  boy.  But  if  he  seemed  naturally  fitted  for  it,  I 
would  advise  No.  2." 


Mr.  Murray  Seasongood  recommends  No.  4. 

He  also  rocommends  the  following:  Rhetoric,  History  (Ancient 
and  Modern),  French,  German,  Spanish,  Physics,  English  Literature 
and  Astronomy. 

"If  possible,  the  course  should  be  different  for  those 

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meaning  to  go  to  Gollege  and  those  not.  The  hoy  in  the  lat¬ 
ter  olass  should  have  his  interest  aroused  in  many  subjects, 
and,  if  he  is  of  a  studious  turn  of  mind,  he  will  continue 
to  study  these  (or  some,  at  least)  after  graduating  from 
high  school.  The  boy  who  goes  to  College  will  have  a  great 
variety  of  subjects  offered  him,  and  what  he  needs  most  in 
high  school  therefore  is  the  habit  of  thorough  study  in  a 
few  subjects.  On  the  whole  for  either  class,  I  think  the 
mental  discipline  from  getting  deep  into  a  few  subjects  is 
of  great  value.  Even  for  the  boy  not  going  to  college  at 
least  one  subject  should  be  made  of  major  importance.  The 
habit  of  thoroughness  is  what  we  need  most," 


Mr.  Chas.  B,  Wilby  emphasizes  No.  4, 

,TNo.  1;  No,  the  elective  system  should  not  begin  earli¬ 
er  than  the  sophomore  year  of  the  college  course. 

No,  2;  I  believe  mathematics  and  the  classics  are 
equally  necessary  as  mental  training  for  every  boy.  No 
high  school  boy  should  be_  able  to  dodge  that  training , 

In  ad_dition  to  the  classics  and  mathematics,  the  high 
school  course  should  include  English  and  history,  and  at 
least  one  modern  language,  preferably  French. 

I  am  glad  your  questions  apply  to  boys  alone.” 


Mr .  D.  Do  Woodmansee  chooses  No.  53. 

"I  would  require  a  thorough  course  in  the  sciences, 
physiology,  and  astronomy.  He  should  have  at  least  two 
years  of  both  Latin  and  German. 

Question  (A).  No. 

Question  (B)«  Yes. 

But  I  prefer  to  have  a  general  knowledge  of  the  impor¬ 
tant  sciences  than  to  entirely  neglect  a  part  of  them." 


Mr.  W.  Worthington. 

"I  have  delayed  sending  in  my  suggestions  on  the  blank 
that  accompanied  your  circular  letter  partly  because  I  do 
not  know  that  I  am  quite  sure  of  the  standpoint  from  which 
the  questions  are  to  be  answered. 

The  advice  that  I  would  give  to  a  boy  would  depend  very 
much  upon  what  I  thought  of  the  mental  characteristics  of 
that  particular  boy.  If  we  assume  that  the  boy  would  have 
the  four  options  that  are  indicated  in  your  list  of  ques¬ 
tions,  -which  option  would  be  the  better  one  for  him  would 

depend  in  my  judgment  partly  upon  his  mental  makeup  and 

opon 

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partly  upon  his  purpose  or  intention  as  to  carrying  his  stud 
ies  be^’ond  the  high  school. 

Assuming,  however,  that  what  is  do sired  is  not  so  much 
my  opinion  as  to  what  would  be  best  for  any  particular  boy, 
but  what  kind  of  a  course  would  do  the  most  good  for  the 
greatest  number,  then  I  should  unquestionably  vote  in  favor 
of  the  course  requiring  both  the  classics  and  mathematics, 
and  consequently  I  have  written  my  name  under  No*  4  on  your 
list  of  questions. 

You  ask  also  whether  I  believe  in  general  knowledge  of 
a  great  number  of  subjects  or  in  thorough  knowledge  of  a  few 
subjects,  I  take  it  that  this  question  is  addressed  to  the 
stage  of  education  referred  to  in  the  other  questions,  that 
is  to  say,  the  secondary  school  class.  And  with  this  I 
should  say  unhesitatingly,  the  instruction  should  be  over 
the  larger  field.  Specialized  study  should  be  indulged  in 
only  after  a  general  education  has  been  acquired,” 


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■A  •  »- 


UNIVERSITY  OP  CINCINNATI 


*9 


February  7th,  1916 


Dear  Dr.  Hancock:- 

I  have  been  greatly  interested  in  your  study  of  High 
School  requirements.  As  far  as  my  experience  goes  with  stu¬ 
dents  entering  the  Medical  School,  it  seems  clear  that  the 
freedom  of  election  which  has  been  permitted  them  in  the  High 
School  and  in  College  has  been  a  serious  disadvantage,  to  their 
preparation  for  Medicine.  Entirely  too  large  a  proportion 
of  these  students  have  had  an  insufficient  amount  of  Latin. 
Their  work  here  and  in  English  has  too  often  been  superficial. 
In  Mathematics  very  few  have  secured  a  satisfactory  working 
knowledge . 

The  average  man  lacks  a  systematic  method  of  thought, 
and  exhibits  no  near  approach  to  the  mathematical  precision 
required  in  Science,  and  more  needed  every  day  in  ordinary 
life. 

A  number  of  courses  in  school  will  teach  observation, 
memorizing,  or  description,  as  geography,  history,  or  litera¬ 
ture;  but  in  biology,  anatomy,  or  plrgsiology,  it  is  necessary, 
in  addition,  to  be  able  to  dray;  accurate,  safe  conclusions 
from  collected  data.  The  constructive  process  in  an  induc¬ 
tion  requires  training  in  mathematical  reasoning. 

This  is  not  realized  b3^  most  persons  unfamiliar  with 
the  modern  demands  of  Science  and  the  subjects  which  are  de¬ 
pendent  on  her  results. 

If  medical  sciences  are  to  be  taught  as  anything  more 
than  mere  memory  work ,  we  must  insist  on  our  students  being 
previously  trained  in  mathematics,  and  much  more  rigidly 
trained  than  they  now  seem  to  be.  Their  method  of  thought 
is  now  apt  to  be  diffuse,  unsystematic,  and  inconclusive; 
apparent ly  because  of  the  loose  way  in  which  they  have  been 
hurried  through  a  minimum  of  both  Latin  and  Mathematics. 

These  subjects  have  always  represented  substantial  mental 
discipline,  besides  forming  a  necessary  part  of  our  funda¬ 
mental  equipment,  I  believe  that  more  time  and  more  thor¬ 
ough  method  is  needed  for  both  Latin  and  Mathematics  in  the 
High  School. 

A  great  advantage  in  Mathematics  as  a  preparation  for 
our  work  is  that  the  student  finds  it  necessary  to  obtain  a 
correct  knowledge  of  each  step  before  he  goes  further  into 
the  subject.  Each  more  advanced  section  depends,  insistently, 
on  the  use  of  what  has  gone  before.  Mathematical  reasoning 
also  teaches  the  student  to  group  the  elements  of  a  problem 
in  proper  proportion  to  insure  accurate  conclusions. 

These  characteristics  are  also  not  only  prominent  in 
Physics  and  Chemistry  which  medical  students  are  now  obliged 
to  study  more  than  ever,  but  are  needed  in  anatomy,  biology 

2220 


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.  . 

* 

'  '  ! 

, 

. 

■  ’ 

... 

■'  “*>  '  /M  <  > 

. 

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. 


pi  •  •  '  » 


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i. 


■ 


70 


and  physiology  to  a  degree  not  generally  appreciated,  I  do 
not  refer  only  to  measurements,  weights,  percentages,  calcu¬ 
lations  of  relative  values  of  force,  etc,,  hut  to  the  funda¬ 
mental  methods  required  by  exact  thinking.  I  am  brought  face 
to  face  with  serious  deficiencies  in  training  for  this  pro¬ 
cess  every  day. 

Sincerely, 

H.  W.  E«  Knower  (signed). 


2220 


•'v.  >6  M  iHmcnAi 

••  :  • 

■ 

•  •.  :  'O 


i 


UNIVERSITY  OP  OOHOINNATI 


71 


April  8,  1916. 


My  Dear  Professor  Hancock: 

In  a  statement  recently  made  by  a  professor  of  the 
University  before  a  gathering  of  secondary  school  teachers  of 
Cincinnati  and- vicinity , the  relation  between  the  study  of 
English  and  that  of  foreign  languages  was  touched  upon.  Cer¬ 
tain  statistics  which  the  speaker  had  gathered  gave, according 
to  this  statement,  the  following  conclusion:  while  nothing 
positive  can  be  asserted,  yet,  so  far  as  the  figures  indica¬ 
ted,  no  superiority  in  English  grades  can  be  found  among 
those  who  take  foreign  languages  over  those  who  have  had  no 
foreign  languages. 

This  statement  seemed  to  me  to  be  contrary  to  any  ra¬ 
tional  conception  of  educational  values.  For,  if  education 
means  anything,  it  means  the  training  of  the  intellectual 
processes  in  certain  fields  of  thought.  While  there  are 
some  who  deny  the  possibility  of  transferring  mental  powers 
from  one  field  to  another,  yet  it  would  seem  clear  that  all 
languages  are  sufficiently  of  a  kind  to  be  considered  as 
essentially  within  the  same  field  of  intellectual  endeavor. 

Since,  however,  the  gathering  of  statistics  seems  to 
be  the  spirit  of  the  day,  I  was  induced  to  undertake  the  mak¬ 
ing  of  an  investigation  into  the  same  data  which  had  been  em¬ 
ployed  by  the  author  of  the  above-quoted  statement.  The  first 
difficulty  that  arrested  my  attention  was  the  impossibility 
of  making  any  comparison  upon  the  grounds  assumed  by  the  pro¬ 
fessor,  who  included  students  taking  any  foreign  language. 

Upon  such  grounds  any  conclusion  would  be  futile  from  the 
fact  that  almost  all  students  entering  the  University  of 
Cincinnati  in  the  fall  of  1915  had  at  least  four  credits  in 
some  foreign  language. 

Since  therefore  a  restriction  of  some  sort  had  to  be 
made  and  as  my  own  interests  are  primarily  classical,  I  con¬ 
cluded  to  make  an  inquiry  along  the  following  lines:  to  divide 
the  entering  class  of  1915  into  three  groups:  (£)  those  of¬ 
fering  four  or  more  credits  in  Latin  and  Creek,  (b)  those 
offering  two  or  three  credits  in  Latin,  (c)  those  offering 
no  credit  in  Latin  or  only  one  credit.  Having  made  this 
division,  I  then  looked  up  the  grades  these  students  receiv¬ 
ed  in  English  1  at  the  February  examinations.  Dividing  these 
grades  into  two  groups,  the  one  group  including  those  receiv¬ 
ing  A  to  B- ,  or  the  superior  students,  the  other  group  in¬ 
cluding  these  receiving  C+  to  E,  F,  and  sub-freshman,  or  the 
inferior  students,  we  have  the  following  results: 

2220 


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L 

- 

» r:  v S  ri£l  ****>$ 

.. 

. 

■ 

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’ 


. 


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:  - 


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:  •  '  I  • 

■  ■'  .. 

. n,  ;  • 

-  - 


. ; 


" 


72 


Grades  in  English  1 , 

A  to  B-  G  to  F  and  Sub-freshman  Total 


4  credits  or 
more  in  Latin 

and  Greek  41  . .  .  94  . . . .  l  g5 

Two  or 
three  cred¬ 
its  in  Latin  .....  11  . .  .  • . .  76  . . .  87 

No  or  one 
credit  in 

Latin  .  3  .  . . 43  . . . .  46 

From  this  table  the  conclusion  is  evident  that,  as  far 
as  these  statistics  go,  the  chance  of  those  stadents  who 
have  had  four  or  more  years  of  Latin  and  Greek  of  being  in 
the  upper  division  of  English  students  is  about  one  to  three; 
of  those  having  two  or  three  years  of  Latin,  about  one  to 
eight;  of  those  having  no  or  one  credit  of  Latin,  about  one 
to  fifteen. 

Very  truly  yours. 

Wo  T.  Semple  (Signed). 

2220 


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<  ■  *  !  ■  ’  ;'..i 


■ 

. 

. 

. 


Even  a  cursory  examination  of  the  answers  to  my  questionnaire 
shows  that  many  very  prominent  men  have  voluntarily  expressed 
themselves  as  absolutely  opposed  to  the  training  that  the  boys 
are  now  getting.  In  the  spaces  left  blank  in  my  circular  letter 
for  recommendation  of  other  studies,  it  may  be  observed  that  by 
residents  of  Cincinnati  book-keeping  was  suggested  three  times, 
a  commercial  course  three  times,  trade  course  once,  salesmanship 
once,  English  and  English  Literature  twenty- two  times,  modern 
languages  fifteen  times,  History  twenty-three  times,  science  sev¬ 
enteen  time 3*  Recommendations  from  men  outside  of  Cincinnati 
ran  about  in  the  same  way. 

■  Now  we  find  that  in  the  elementary  or  grade  schools  there 
are  taught  English,  Geography,  History,  Mathematics  and  German 
(optional).  The  opinions  expressed  almost  unanimously  in  the 
answers  to  my  questionnaire  are  that  these  courses  should  be  con¬ 
tinued  with  increased  emphasis  in  the  high  schools  and  that  there 
should  be  added  science  and  languages,  either  classical  or  mod¬ 
ern,  preferably  both. 

A  few  courses  could  easily  be  arranged  so  as  to  include  all 
these  subjects,  and  most  of  us  believe  that  if  the  boys  were  made 
to  take  such  courses  and  each  day  were  required  to  do  a  definite 
task,  the  great  majority  of  them  would  be  much  better  prepared  to 
begin  their  respective  vocations. 

It  was  shown  above  that  not  seven  per  cent  of  the  boys  who 
enter  high  school,  have  decided  upon  their  future  careers, 
those  who  constitute  this  seven  per  cent  many  expect  to  be  preach¬ 
ers,  lawyers,  doctors,  engineers , etc and  such  are  very  emphatically 

2220 


**ai  t  i**?*  ■  *  ■'  a  -  '^d 


4  to&Kftffi'ti  if'yf#  **&  r.v  'rib- 

I  tl  i  (ft*  '■••*«  f«1fce 

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.  - 


....... 


•. 


74 


advised  to  take  the  courses  just  mentioned.  It  follows  that 
eight  or  ten  different  courses  have  been  inaugurated  to  accom¬ 
modate  less  than  three  per  cent  of  all  the  boys. 

Under  the  existing  conditions,  it  is  evident  that  if  in  the 
educational  system  as  a  whole,  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  uni¬ 
versity,  the  present  numerous  courses  were  contracted  instead  of 
expanded,  the  fundamental  subjects  could  be  more  emphasized  and 
better  taught;  it  is  also  seen  that  the  authorities  could  get  a 
better  line  on  their  teachers  and  could  require  constant  improve¬ 
ment  in  their  scholarship.  At  the  same  time  they  could  pay  bet¬ 
ter  salaries  and  give  a  better  status  in  the  community  to  teach¬ 
ers  and  'thus  induce  better  men  to  enter  this,  the  most  important 

of  all  services, 

* 

Resume , 

1.  An  investigation  has  been  made  in  which  in  the  answers 

of  approximately  one  hundred  Cincinnatians  are  found  to  correspond 
closely  with  those  of  one  hundred  non-residents  of  Cincinnati. 

2,  The  author  v/ishes  very  much  to  see  the  investigation 
applied  to  other  localities, 

30  Many  prominent  men  in  very  diverse  vocations  have  shown 
great  interest  in  the  investigation.  They  have  not  only  answered 
the  questions  that  have  been  raisod  and  offered  numerous  comments 
on  them  but  they  have  also  voluntarily  taken  the  trouble  to  write 
letters  which  are  of  great  interest, 

4.  The  consensus  of  opinion  is  that  the  subjects  which, 
always  have  been  considered  fundamental  should  b°  emphasized 
in  the  high  school  course. 


2220 


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■ 


5*  There  is  no  ground  or  demand  for  the  introduction  of 
many  subjects  that  hav  found  their  way  into  the  high  schools. 

For  example,  in  the  so-called  Commercial  Course  we  find  "applied 
mathematics"  substituted  in  the  second  year  for  Plane  Geometrv. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  applied  mathematics  usually  follows  a 
course  of  at  least  five  years  study  in  pure  mathematics.  As  used 
here  the  term  is  a  misnomer  for  "easy  arithmetic".  No  mathemati¬ 
cian  or  body  of  intelligent  business  men  would  recommend  such  a 
substitution.  It  is  one  of  many  examples  of  the  "ease"  that  is 
permeating  the  schools. 

No  Ba  Illustrations  are  taken  from  the  field  of  mathematics 
since  the  author  is  able  to  speak  with  authority  on  this  subject. 

S.  Teachers  are  wasting  much  time  with  courses  in  methods, 
pseudo-psychological  subjects,  vocational  guidance,  etc.,  to  the 
detriment  of  the  subject-matter  which  they. are  teaching.  For 
example,  it  is  quite  possible,  and  I  find  it  to  be  often  the 
case,  that  a  person  who  has  taken  only  the  first  two  years  of 
mathematics  in  a  high  school  and  whose  grades  are  hardly  passa¬ 
ble,  is  able  without  further  study  in  mathematics  to  obtain  a 
position  as  teacher  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades.  It  is  also 
true  that  the  best  pupils  in  the  class  are  better  able  to  teach 
the  mathematics  than  are  such  teachers.  I  find  also  that  many 
of  these  persons  are  rated  high  upon  the  preferred  list  of  teach¬ 
ers,  and,  unknowingly  on  the  part  of  the  superintendents  and  in¬ 
nocently  on  the  part  of  school  directors,  those  teachers  are  rap¬ 
idly  promoted, 

7.  The  methods  known  as  Vocational  Guidance  cannot  be  ap¬ 
plied  to  pupils  entering  high  school  (see  the  experiments  of 

2220 


Dean  Schneider  mentioned  above).  With  rare  exceptions  there  is 
no  one  who  can  make  a  "proper  selection  which  enables  the  bo3^  to 

4 

obtain  the  education  which  will  best  suit  him  for  his  subsequent 

career,"  nor  is  there  any  one  to  make  "individuality  of  a  boy!s 

A 

mind  • " 


8.  It  appears  that  not  seven  per  cent  of  the  boys  who  enter 
high  school  have  any  idea  of  what  they  intend  to  do  In  the  future, 
and  of  this  seven  per  cent  the  majority  of  the  bo3rs  are  advised 
to  take  strictly  disciplinary  courses. 


* 


\ 


